Ghana Expand Renewables Targets Through 2020

Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Johannesburg, South Africa) -- Ghana's Volta River Authority (VRA) will conduct feasibility studies in June for the construction of wind power projects with the investment potential of $350 million. The VRA with private sector partners will initiate the construction of eight wind farms on the Atlantic coast in Winneba and Ada-Keta and inland at Techiman and Gambaga.

The first phase of the project is expected to have 100/150 megawatts (MW) capacity by the end of 2015 with the second phase adding another 150 MW of installed capacity by 2020. VRA's director of engineering, William Sam-Appiah said that the investment was in line with the national energy policy to include renewables.

Appiah said that the Ghanaian government had initially targeted 10% of renewable energy in the generation mix, but that figure had now been adjusted upwards. "We have changed our targets. Initially we said we were doing 10 MW of solar and 100/150 MW of wind energy. To date we have two MW of solar and we are expanding this to 12 MW with funding from KfW, a Germany agency."

VRA's senior electrical engineer Kojo Antwi said that the authority plans to increase the current two MW of solar energy to about 200 MW by 2020. "There are advantages of renewable energy which the country has to explore. In the past drought and fuel hikes have exposed the disadvantages associated with hydro and thermal," he said.

Hydropower and thermal power have an erratic history in Ghana with resulting shortfalls and blackouts. The renewable energy act was passed in 2011 targeting the augmentation of the country's energy sources.

To implement the objectives of the ac the public utilities regulatory commission (PURC) in collaboration with the energy commission and the ministry of energy and petroleum is to out the renewable energy Fee-in-Tariff (FiT) scheme into operation to encourage investments into the sector. The FiT scheme will guarantee the sale of electricity generated from renewable energy sources by establishing a renewable energy purchase obligation and mandatory tariff rate for the utilities.

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