Vice President of IMANI Ghana, Mr Kofi Bentil, believes the country can save some 40 percent of its energy consumption, should government prioritise the handling and usage of renewable energy sources.
‘’We have been looking at solar and wind energy sources like oil, hydro and thermal production but we have not seen much progress in the area of renewable energy,’’ Bentil said.
Bentil in an interview with Goldstreet Business in Accra recommended there must be a consented action to create a real market and incentive for the private sector to explore renewable energy systems.
‘’There is an installed capacity with a potential to generate more energy than we need but the problem is that the price of that capacity is not what most people can afford,’’ he added.
‘’We must also ask if we have all the energy we need which we can afford? I don’t think so because we have saddled ourselves with too many power purchase agreements which we can’t afford,’’ Bentil lamented.
Currently, global energy demand is met by fossil fuels which represents 65 percent, nuclear energy (16 percent) and renewable sources (19 percent – of which 11 percent is biomass and 3.5 percent hydro).
Projections have indicated that 50 years from now, energy conversion systems based on fossil fuels will reduce by 80 percent in favor of renewable energy.
Energy efficiency should be the approach of controlling and reducing energy consumption without compromising the demands of society.
A system is more energy efficient if it delivers more useful-work for the same energy input, or the same useful-work for less energy input.
By Mawuli Y. Ahorlumegah