Nigeria
Solar in Imo State: sunlight, tariffs and what a system costs
A rooftop in Imo State gets about 4.5 peak sun hours a day, so every kilowatt of panels makes roughly 1,350 kWh a year. A 5 kW home system produces about 18 kWh on an average day, against roughly 18 kWh of daily demand.
Every figure below is recalculated for the audience you pick.
Peak sun hours
4.5 h/day
Daily average across the year
Yield per kW
1,350 kWh/yr
Delivered output, after 17% system losses
5 kW system output
18 kWh/day
6,750 kWh a year
Grid tariff (modelled)
₦209.50/kWh
EEDC Band A, cost-reflective
Imo State electricity usage — home
A home of this size in Imo State works through about 18 kWh a day, roughly 6,570 kWh a year, and gets around 20 hours of grid supply a day from Enugu Electricity Distribution Company. Demand is light through the working day and peaks between 6pm and 10pm, when solar has already stopped. Cooling load rises through the hot dry months, exactly when generation is strongest.
Grid units (EEDC Band A)
₦209.50/kWh
20 hours a day of supply on paper — actual hours are often lower
Generator units
₦594/kWh
Diesel at ₦1,800 a litre, fuel only
Solar units (5 kW / 10 kWh)
₦175.69/kWh
Levelised cost of a 5 kW solar and 10 kWh battery system over 25 years
Your electricity bill in Imo State: EEDC
Imo State is served by Enugu Electricity Distribution Company. Your band depends on how many hours of supply your feeder is promised, and it is printed on your bill.
| Band | Supply promised | ₦/kWh | Buildings here | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Band A | 20+ hours a day | ₦209.50 | — | Cost-reflective, no subsidy |
| Band B | 16–20 hours a day | ₦66.47 | — | Subsidised |
| Band C | 12–16 hours a day | ₦53.78 | — | Subsidised |
| Band D | 8–12 hours a day | ₦32.48 | — | Subsidised |
| Band E | 4–8 hours a day | ₦32.44 | — | Subsidised |
Every calculation on this page is run against the Band A, cost-reflective rate of ₦209.50/kWh. Bands B–E are subsidised and under review, so pricing solar against them would flatter the subsidy rather than the system.
For comparison, a small petrol or diesel generator delivers a unit for roughly ₦594/kWh once fuel is counted — several times a subsidised band, and the reason solar pays back fastest where the grid is weakest.
What a 5 kW array makes each month in Imo State
6,750 kWh a year, about 18 kWh on an average day. Strongest in Aug, quietest in Dec.
Where the power comes from in Imo State
Home · 5 kW + 10 kWh — 5 kW of panels with a 10 kWh battery, simulated hour by hour for a full year against a measured residential house demand pattern. Solar and storage carry 81% of the load.
Each band is an average hour across the year: sunlight first, then the battery after dark, with the grid filling whatever is left.
What this system returns in Imo State
A four-bedroom home running fans, fridge, TV, pumps and light air conditioning. 5 kW solar, 10 kWh battery, 4.8 kW inverter — installed at about ₦4.2m. Solar costs ₦176 a unit over its life, and 81% of demand is met without the grid.
Year-one savings
₦1.1m
₦92,814 a month off the bill
Payback
5.0 yrs
Simple payback on installed cost
Return (IRR)
22%
Over a 20-year life
20-year savings
₦16.3m
Net present value ₦2.3m
Environmental benefit in Imo State
Diesel avoided
334 L/yr
About ₦601,386 of fuel
CO₂ avoided
3,426 kg/yr
Grid factor 0.5 kg per kWh
Generator hours cut
134 hrs/yr
At a typical 2.5 L an hour
Clean energy
6,075 kWh/yr
Used on site, not exported
What a system costs in Imo State
Installed price estimates using today's median Nigerian hardware rates plus installation, and savings valued at your local tariff and what a generator costs to run. Estimates, not quotes.
Essentials
Lights, fans, TV, phones and a small fridge
₦2.9m
3 kW solar · 5 kWh battery · 3.5 kVA inverter
- Generates
- 337 kWh/month
- Avoided spend
- ₦78,479/month
- Pays back in
- 3.0 years
- Fuel avoided
- 189 L/yr
Family home
Full home minus air conditioning, with overnight backup
₦5.1m
5 kW solar · 10 kWh battery · 5 kVA inverter
- Generates
- 562 kWh/month
- Avoided spend
- ₦138,493/month
- Pays back in
- 3.1 years
- Fuel avoided
- 334 L/yr
Whole home
Air conditioning, boreholes and a home office
₦10.2m
10 kW solar · 20 kWh battery · 10 kVA inverter
- Generates
- 1,125 kWh/month
- Avoided spend
- ₦283,140/month
- Pays back in
- 3.0 years
- Fuel avoided
- 683 L/yr
What hardware costs right now
Median advertised Nigerian prices, taken from live listings. Hardware only — installation, mounting and wiring sit on top.
Solar panels
₦225/W
350 W panels and larger
Inverters
₦123,266/kVA
2.5 kVA inverters and larger
Batteries
₦203,676/kWh
3 kWh batteries and larger
How your roof changes the answer
The figures above assume a clean, well-oriented roof. Yield per kWp installed, adjusted for direction and shade:
| South facing, 10–15° tilt | 1,350 kWh/kWp/yr | 0% |
| Flat roof, ballasted | 1,296 kWh/kWp/yr | -4% |
| East or west facing | 1,188 kWh/kWp/yr | -12% |
| North facing | 1,107 kWh/kWp/yr | -18% |
| Partially shaded (trees, tanks) | 1,012 kWh/kWp/yr | -25% |
Local government areas in Imo
Sizing the market rather than a single site? See the rooftop market data for Imo State.
How these numbers are produced
Approach A — energy value (upper bracket)
Sizes the system to the building's full latent demand and values that energy at the mixed grid/generator tariff. It answers what the energy is worth — not what anyone currently pays.
Approach B — cash saved (lower bracket)
Sizes the system to demand that is actually served today, values it by merit order (solar displaces generator kWh first) and caps it at current spend. It answers what a building stops paying.
Cohort: Viable rooftops (≥0.6 kWp potential).
- Demand is modelled latent demand, not metered consumption.
- Fuel is priced at ₦1,800/litre (operator-set). NBS reported ₦3,277/litre for May 2026 — on that basis every naira figure here is roughly 1.8× understated.
- Generator ownership is a model output, not a survey result: it follows from the grid-availability scale and the 25% demand-suppression assumption.
- Approach A prices energy nobody currently buys. Its savings must never be read as cash saved.
- Demand is MODELLED LATENT demand, not metered consumption.
- Generator ownership is model output, not survey.
- Medians do not combine across groups — re-derive from the histograms.
- Per-building files are float32 with 4 significant figures; cast to float64 before summing, because polars keeps Float32 sums in Float32.
- Null scenario fields mean the roof cannot host 0.6 kWp, not zero savings.
- `genset` was previously named `diesel` and now uses the segment's real fuel.
- Ordering holds by construction: grid savings < mixed < genset.