In Nigeria, Solar Panels Are the New Wedding Gift

toomuchtodo

https://archive.today/ivm8t Assuming ~50M households in Nigeria, and the current cost of ~$4500 to equip a home with solar, the math is still daunting. - The equipment needed to keep a three-person home running will pay for itself in as little as 16 months, BloombergNEF research shows — but, at $4,500, getting set up costs about seven times as much as buying a new petrol generator. (It’s the generator’s fueling costs that will eventually bite, at roughly $200 a month.) Related: Chinese EVs Make Inroads in Nigeria as Gasoline Prices Rise - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-02-26/lagos-ev-... | https://archive.today/lMAtD - February 25th, 2025 (if you're looking for a startup idea for YC, consider a way to finance these systems for consumers; go to the bond market for capital, manage credit risk and accepting payments; your TAM is all of Africa's energy needs)

turtlebits

The nice thing about solar is that you can start small and add incrementally. I dont know what the $4500 includes, but you can fairly easily get 1kw of solar and 5kWh battery and inverter for 1k USD.

thelastgallon

For off grid residential (which will be ~1 billion people), I wonder if it can be a lot cheaper to go all DC, avoid inverters, losses converting DC<->AC<->DC. Looks like it is possible: https://solarpoweredge.com/2026/05/10/pure-dc-off-grid-solar...