ENERGY DIVERSIFICATION CHOICES FOR NIGERIA: Optimisation By The Criteria Ranking Method

This paper reviews the diverse energy options available to Nigeria, and presents some popular arguments for choosing certain energy options above others for largescale development. These popular methods of making energy policy decisions may be prone to faulty reasoning and may not be quantitatively assessable. Using the criteria of availability, economy of energy conversion and environmental sustainability, a procedure of preference ranking based on expert opinions is suggested for optimizing decisions on the most suitable candidates for energy diversification in Nigeria in the coming decades. A test case utilizing three opinions on the criteria for nine energy options is used to show how the method works.