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Abstract
A new dawn in Nigeria’s power generation landscape requires renewable energy development. Episodic power supply, and too frequent outages characterizes the centralized power grid in Nigeria, thus frustrating efforts towards economic development. The current situation of electricity generation calls for a diversified energy mix with an increasing share of renewable based electricity generation for sustainable development. Biomass is promising as flexible, able to ramp, cost efficient, and reliable for baseload renewable electricity generation without intermittency, and possibility for integration without any additional backup. The study focus is on maize crop residue-based biomass-fired power plants for energy development using data from the wet season agricultural performance survey. Land use productivity in the cultivation of crops providing biomass residue feedstock is key to growth and has a priority spot in the policy discourse among stakeholders in Nigeria. Moreover, facility siting as in the case with power plant is a vital part of planning, impacting on profitability and viability of ventures. We employ a policy-driven, multi sectoral-focused approach in solving spatial multi state power generation planning problem. The study conducts suitability analysis and solves location-allocation optimization for siting decision. Results reveal suitable states for biomass-fired baseload generation using maize residue as feedstock. Findings suggest an actionable pathway to chart biomass-fired baseload power generation siting plans in Nigeria. Harnessing crop residue as feedstock in biomass-fired electricity generation subscribes to the concept of circular economy as an alternative to traditional linear economy. Circular economy pushes for a shift to renewable energy and materials, seeks to extract the maximum value from crop output, and deploys biomass power generation technology. Such electricity generation improvements will enhance competitiveness of the entire commercial and industrial sectors in Nigeria thereby enabling the unleashing of productivity across the board through a reduction in structural impediments to Nigeria’s industrialization. Core implication of the research approach through productivity index is the opportunity for government regulatory operations through productivity improvements in enhancing energy infrastructure permitting.