Despite the negative activities of landowners which is hampering efforts by government to include wind energy into the country’s energy mix, officials of the Ministry of Energy, MoE, and the Energy Commission, EC, are upbeat about the coming on stream of the first wind energy power plant at Ayitepa in the Ningo-Prampram District of the Greater Accra Region in the foreseeable future with actual construction beginning next year.
This was disclosed by sources at the Ministry of Energy, MoE and the Energy Commission, EC, who have confirmed that much work has been done by the two organisations to usher Ghana into the era of wind energy usage.
In separate interviews in Accra on Monday, Mr. Wisdom Ahiataku-Togobo, Director of Renewable Energy at MoE, said the needed data that every potential investor will rely on to embark on such a venture is already in place and can be accessed at the EC.
He explained that what the Ministry has done was to set up potential sites for wind power generation along the coast, especially between Tema and Aflao in the Volta Region for data collection purposes.
He said though some of the windmills especially in Fuveme, Tunu-Anyanui and Anloga are rusty, they have achieved their basic purpose of collecting data that will be needed by the investors in the project.
The cost of such a project, he added depends on the height of the windmill and the wind speed which will determine how much such a project will cost.
Explaining further, Mr. Frederick Ken Appiah, Chief Programmes Officer in charge of Renewable Energy at the EC said the windmasts have been erected along the coast of Ghana for data collection which will be vital for the potential private sector investor into the development wind energy.
“The challenge of the availability of a comprehensive wind data removes one of the impediments militating against development of wind energy and now makes the sector attractive for power development”, he explained.
“Through the installation of the wind measuring masts funded by the World Bank under the Ghana Energy Development and Access Project (GEDAP), wind data collected seeks to reveal that there exists wind resource in Ghana which could be exploited to complement Ghana’s energy supply,” he added.
He further explained that eight locations were identified on the coast for the study – ranging between Gomoah Fetteh, Sege, Anyanui, Denu among others. The results revealed that the best locations for such a venture lie east of the Meridian with sites in Anloga, Atiteti and Sege being the most promising.
Mr. Appiah further said three wind power plants are in the pipe line with Volta River Authority, VRA, being one of the investors though six more companies have expressed interest in such a venture.
The summary of the data collected so far, he added, is available for potential investors at the Commission’s website for free but the detail raw minute-by-minute data is a fee depending on the number of sites that one seeks information on.
By Kafui Gale-Zoyiku