As part of efforts to harness Ghana’s renewable energy drive and reduce its over-reliance on electricity, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has announced that feasibility studies are currently underway to move a number of government institutions to solar power.
Dr. Bawumia noted that government has taken this decision in order to wane off most state institutions completely from the use of electricity. He added that this move by government is a major effort at doing away with high cost of electricity.
He mentioned that the Jubilee and Parliament House, are the major two state institutions that will soon be connected to solar power energy. He added that all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDA’s) including hospitals, schools police station will follow the move.
Ghana Renewable Energy Fair
Speaking at the 4th Ghana Renewable Energy Fair organized by the Energy Commission on the theme: Renewable Energy: Exploiting Energy Resources at the District Level, Dr. Bawumia mentioned that the cost of renewable energy has drastically reduced and thus important government takes advantage to convert all state institutions to solar power.
“By making sure that the energy sector is financially self sufficient, government must move more towards solar power so that we don’t get burdened with more electricity bills that government finds it difficult in paying”, Dr. Bawumia said.
Government to open bid for solar development project
In the attempt to increase the solar energy component of the national energy mix, the Vice President mentioned that government will soon open bidding for the development of cost effective scalable solar power project to harness Ghana’s renewable energy sector.
He noted that the project is aimed at accelerating the development of many grid solutions in off-grid and island communities in the country which would focus on lighting, irrigation, agricultural and other economic activities.
“The project will be subject to competitive bidding to enable us adopt the most efficient technologists and also achieve the value for money”, Dr. Bawumia said.
Rooftop sola development project
The Vice President referred to the fallen prices of solar panels, saying rooftop solar system has become increasingly accessible for domestic and business use; government has introduced the National Rooftop programme to facilitate the adoption of panel system in various homes.
As a result of this, Dr. Bawumia said government has decided to widen the scope of the programme to include the installation of Solar PVs system for some selected off-grid rural communities.
He further urged the Ghana Irrigation Development Authority to consider the use of cost-effective utility scale renewable energy technologies in their irrigation schemes for areas that are remote from the national grid.
Owing that the high price of power, Dr. Bawumaih said it is the goal of government to reduce the cost of electricity tariffs from 18 cents per kilo watt hour (per kWh) to under 10 cents per kilo watt hour (per kWh).
Ministry of Energy, ECG
Vice President noted government’s goal at reducing the cost of energy generation is on course as the Ministry of Energy and the Electricity Company of Ghana have been tasked to use competitive tendering procedure for procurement of renewable energy.
According to him, the winner of the tender will be guaranteed a power purchase agreement, connection agreement and government enhancement to ensure that the state gets value for money.
By Dundas Whigham
