Ghana is on course for energy transition to clean energy sources including Renewable Energy, the country’s Acting Minister for Energy and Member of Parliament for Hohoe Constituency in the Volta Region, John-Peter Amewu, has said.
The West African nation has developed a Renewable Energy Master Plan and hopes to increase the penetration of the renewable energy sources mainly from solar, wind, waste to energy into the energy mix by 10 percent by 2030.
This would be in line with the country’s commitment towards Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
Currently, renewable energy, mainly from hydro power, accounts for 38 percent of the electricity generation mix.
Apart from this, there are other renewable energy plants, mainly solar, such as the VRA’s 2.5MWp solar park in Navrongo in the Upper East Region, VRA’s 6.4 MWp in Lawra in the Upper West, the ongoing VRA’s 13.5 MWp solar in Kaleo, Bui Power Authority’s 250MWp, 20MWp BXC Solar farm at Gomoa Onyadzi (near Winneba), 20MW Minergy solar farm Winneba, 100kW Safisana Waste-to-Energy Power Plant at Ashaiman and 45KW Alavanyo Tsatsadu Mini Hydro Power Plant in the Hohoe District.
Delivering a speech at the Eleventh IRENA Assembly, which is being held virtually under the theme: ‘Covid-19-Energy Transition’, Mr Peter Amewu said: “Our policy is to transition from oil-based fuels to gas and renewable in the short-to medium-term.”
He said based on this, the government, in 2020, amended the Renewable Energy Act to provide the legal backing and also create the enabling environment for scaling up renewable energy application in the country.
He said one of the key provisions in the Renewable Energy Amendment was the introduction of Competitive Procurement of power plants including Renewable Energy.
“The Renewable Energy amended Act also encourages small scale self-generation and net metering on roof tops.
Accordingly, we have commenced the integration of solar in government buildings to reduce the finance burden on the
government in paying of utility bills,” he said.
According to Mr. Amewu, the Amended Act also mandates fossil fuel based wholesale electricity suppliers, fossil fuel producers and other companies that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions to complement the global effort of climate mitigation by contributing to finance RE programmes partially for off-grid and mini grid electrification.
“Renewable Energy has a key role to play to energizing health care in off grid communities in the mist of the Covid 19 pandemic,” he concluded.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
