Ghana’s largest state power generation company, Volta River Authority (VRA), is seeking to be the leading renewable development company in the West Africa’s renewable energy space.
VRA has, thus, rolled out a 5-10-year Renewable Energy Development Programme to guide them towards achieving the target.
The move is in line with the Government of Ghana’s policy to promote the development and utilisation of Renewable Energy (RE).
“Our goal is to command, at least, 70 percent of the renewable space in Ghana,” VRA said in its Sustainability Report 2019.
According to him, VRA would achieve its targets through collaboration with private entities to develop the other renewables VRA has in its portfolio.
The report enumerated VRA’s targets for wind and solar power generation, including what the company has been able to do within the few years.
“Our first solar plant with a capacity of 2.5MW is situated at Navrongo in the Upper East Region, north of the country, with a settlement population of about 27,306 people. The terrain is at and the ecology, typical of the Sahel.
“In 2019, the Authority completed its first 80kw rooftop solar at its headquarters in Accra, as part of its culture of working in a green and smart environment.
“In future, the VRA intends to develop a pilot floating solar project on the Kpong Hydro-electric head pond at Akuse and deploy rooftop solar system in our office and residential facilities at Akosombo, Akuse and Aboadze.”
The company, recently, cut the sod for the construction of 13MW and 4MW solar power project at Lawra and Kaleo in the Upper West Region.
“We have also made progress in the area of thermal power generation. Our strategy to switch from light crude oil to natural gas has not only significantly improved our carbon footprint, but also contributed to putting us on a sustainable financial path owing to lower operation and maintenance costs of our thermal power assets. We have further improved our carbon footprint through a number of renewable energy projects including the 17 MW Kaleo/Lawra solar project and the 60 MW Pwalugu Hydropower Multipurpose project. Our 150 MW wind project is also at the development stage,” CEO of VRA, Ing. Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa said in the Report.
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The VRA is, also, venturing into wind power production and looks forward to developing about 150MW wind power project to be located in Anloga and Ada West Districts of the Volta and Greater Accra Regions respectively, in the short to medium term.
The report said feasibility studies and the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Studies had been concluded for the first 76MW Wind Power Project at Anloga, Srogbe and Anyanui in the Volta Region, as well as the second 76.5MW project in Wokumagbe and Goi in the Greater Accra Region.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com