Nigeria: Shell installs a floodlit football pitch powered by renewable energy

Shell, the British and Dutch oil company, has installed a football pitch with lighting that runs on renewable energy at the Federal College of Education in Lagos (Nigeria), announced Shell on 10/12/2015.

The technology, which was developed by Pavegen Systems (a renewable technology company) features the installation of one hundred tiles underneath the pitch to harness the kinetic energy created by movement by the players, which is then stored and added to the electricity generated by solar panels to operate the floodlights.

"There was no way at night time for people to socialise or play sport. We're creating a real legacy project here to really change the way energy is used and viewed in Africa," said Laurence Kemball-Cook, founder of Pavegen Systems and a finalist in Shell's UK Young Entrepreneur of the Year competition in 2011. In September 2014, Shell and Pavegen Systems established the world's first floodlit football pitch powered by solar and kinetic energy, in Mineira, a favela of Rio de Janeiro (BRA).

The project was sponsored by Akon

• This initiative was sponsored by the…