HOW HOTELS.NG USES SOLAR PANELS - Ezinna Nwaoduh

No matter the power situation in Nigeria, there is one building that never goes dark. It is located at No.3 birell avenue Yaba, Lagos - the official residence of hotels.ng, Nigeria’s biggest online hotel booking company. The need for electricity has become a part of our daily lives in the 21st century and the level of demand has lead to an increase in the sources generating and distributing electricity. According to Thisday newspaper publication, on the 3rd of August 2015, Nigerians spend N150 billion on electricity annually. Apart from electrical energy generated from gas turbines (hydro electricity - which happens to be the oldest and most common source of electrical energy), different sources of electrical energy have been invented (renewable & non-renewable), e.g wind electricity, biomass electricity, geothermal electricity and solar electricity. However, solar energy solutions seem to be the next best option (as it is clean, noiseless and renewable) due to the climatic conditions of Africa. Working on tech solutins to meet customer needs is the major goal of hotels.ng team. Therefore, I and three team members (Mark Essien, Justin Irabor and Ossom Sunny) drew up blueprints and identified major power solutions applicable to the Nigerian situation. Wind was expensive and not very much obtainable,  biomass and geothermal required much advanced technology not readily available in Nigeria. Hence, with the available sunlight even in the rainy season, solar solutions proved to be the most technologically sound. Since we adopted the solar energy solution using solar panels, diesel costs have slashed by over 70%. It would interest you to know that the last 392 days have seen us experience only FOUR seconds of blackout. Most reputable companies realizing the beauty and importance of this alternative solution has implemented the use of solar panels either as a stand-alone or as a backup source of electricity. The application of new solutions is the hallmark of hotels.ng, Nigeria’s biggest online hotel booking company. Being a 24 hour hotel booking company, the company operates on a 20 solar panel board with a 12KVA inverter, meaning that the company has zero down-time due to lack of electricity and online hotel reservation is being implemented without hitches. Just like every startup in Nigeria the cost of electricity has remained a huge financial burden but with bright and savvy solutions like the solar inverter, hotels.ng has taken the lead in creating a cheap, efficient, clean and profitable business model in Nigeria and Africa.