The experience of sustainable energy and development in Ghana

Construction permits have been issued to a number of solar investors, with an expected 80-100MWp of solar PV power plant to be completed and connected to the national grid in 18months, the Ghana Energy Commission has stated.

Site permits have also been issued for wind and wave power, whilst provisional licenses have been issued to investors interested in producing power from biomass and wastes, totaling 424MW.

“Installation of the first turbines of 1000MW wave energy farm has commenced at Ada and we expect the first electrons flow from the plant within two months,” said Dr. Alfred Ofosu Ahenkorah, Executive Secretary of the Energy Commission.

Ghana's local manufacturing sector and industries are collapsing due to the inability of the energy sector to meet their electricity needs.

Dr. Ahenkorah says sustainable energy development means looking at indigenous resources, including renewable energy. These resources include woodfuel – charcoal and firewoods, solar and wind energy.

The use of firewood cookstoves creates jobs for artisans along the cookstoves value chain – producers of liners and fabricators of stoves, distributors and retailers. Woodfuels could also be used as fuel for electricity generation.

“One could cultivate wood plantations, manage existing forest and even forest reserves and use the wastes, dead branches and fruits as fuel for biomass power plants,” stated Dr. Ahenkorah.

He spoke on: “Energy and Sustainable Development: the Ghanaian Experience” at the 2nd International Economics Conference in Kumasi, organized by the Department of Economics at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

He acknowledged that “improved access to sustainable energy services in Ghana has a great potential to create more jobs, improve lives, reduce the cost of goods, generate revenue for government and stabilize the local currency.”

Sustainable energy development, he noted, rests on the three pillars of environmental and socio-economic integrity as well as energy security, without which there would be no meaningful development.

“The Ghanaian economy is currently unable to supply the needed energy for growth and development. Even though Ghana is endowed with rich and natural sources of energy such as petroleum, river bodies, forest and solar, other factors of production are needed to ensure sustainable use of these natural resources,” said Dr. (Sr.) Eugenia Amporfu, Head of the KNUST Department of Economics. The factors, she said, include labour, human and physical capital as well as entrepreneurial ability.

The Energy Commission is currently reviewing and updating existing policies and plans to steer the country towards the sustainable development, management and utilization of both renewable and nonrenewable energy sources to support economic growth of the country.

Dr. (Sr.) Amporfu, has called for partnership from both the public and private sectors to tap into the “rich brains” at the department as they work towards creating a research centre.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh