UYO, Nigeria, Sept. 11 (UPI) -- The Nigerian state of Akwa Ibom is building the country's first solar water-heater plant, it was reported Monday.
"We are investing in the solar water heaters because it is the future... If you take away the cost of hot water from your electricity bill, you will have reduced the cost of living and transfer such costs to other things," Ifiok Umondak, the chairman of AKWASOL, told the Nigeria's Vanguard newspaper.
The $4 million plant is a joint project by AKWASOL, Regional Energy Harvest Systems Ltd., the Akwa Ibom state government and a group of businessmen from Barbados, according to the report.
Umondak said producing the water heaters was essential, due to fears of a looming spike in electricity prices in Nigeria, according to the report.
The project partners project that the plant will produce between 10,000 and 30,000 heaters each year, the report said.
"The solar energy business is good business... You use solar for electricity, solar for heating, solar for drying, solar for distilling, solar for frying and solar for many other things," Umondak told the newspaper, enthusing about the profitability of the venture.
