GOVERNMENT HAS indicated its resolve to achieving an electricity generation that ensured diversity and security of energy supply for Ghana.
President Akufo-Addo said this Thursday in Parliament.
As a result, he said his administration would continue to promote the deployment of renewable energy in line with its policy target of 10 percent renewables in the energy mix from the current 1 percent.
He added that “in fact, government’s target is to install up to 200 megawatts of distributed solar power by 2030 in both residential and non-residential facilities in order to reduce Government’s liabilities to ECG (PDS Ghana Ltd).”
According to him, “another justification for renewable energy is that, in spite of Ghana’s excess electricity generation capacity, we can still not achieve our universal access target because there are many Ghanaian communities, especially those on islands and lake sides, that cannot be reached through the national grid.”
He said “for example, there are currently two hundred (200) island and two thousand (2,000) lake side communities that require mini-grids from renewable sources to meet their energy needs.”
To reduce government’s expenditure on utilities, and also promote the use of solar power for government and public buildings, he noted that the Ministry of Energy initiated the Solar Rooftop Programme.
According to him, “the Ministry is leading by example with the installation of a 65-kilowatt solar rooftop system at its premises.”
He stressed that “renewable energy has also become a necessary addition to our energy sector because it has increasingly become cheaper, and is key to the implementation of our international obligations under Sustainable Development Goal 7, on access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy, as well as Sustainable Development Goal 13, on urgent action to combat climate change.”
BY Melvin Tarlue