Revolve Magazine publication 

Ghana. West Africa´s Energy hub

With over 75% of the primary energy coming from its own renewable resources, at first glance one could conclude that Ghana today is close to self-sufficiency; however, the actual rates of access to energy services are low. A favorite for business and entrepreneur opportunities, the country is building a solid commitment with policy, technology and industry players to emerge as an African champion of energy access from renewable sources before 2020.

Today´s Ghana is rushing towards achieving energy independence, being the 1^st west African country in 2012 world Bank ranking for doing business and 5^th African behind Mauritius, South Africa, Botswana and Tunisia.

Recent discoveries have awakened international interests and put Ghana on the list of energy-relevant regions of the world, despite the fact Ghana’s gross energy supplies have traditionally depended on biomass (often traded on a non-formal-and therefore recorded-basis),  oil  and less significantly, hydroelectric plants.

Given that 75% of Ghana’s primary energy is obtained from its own energy resources it could seem it is close to self-sufficiency. However this data does not reflect in what way is the energy used nor its rate of access. As observable in figure 2, about 40% of total consumption occurs under some form of modern energy, and comparing the two figures, it is remarkable the difference between the total primary energy and the final energy use, from which we can confer losses (15%) are responsible.

 

6.8 M Ghanaians have no access to electricity.

Despite having a national average rate of access to electricity of 60%, which is quite an accomplishment compared to neighboring west African countries, 6.8 million Ghanaians have no access to electricity. This lack of access occurs mostly in northeast and northwest rural areas where the access is estimated to be about 25%.

 

The strategic National Energy Plan, goals to achieve 100% electrification rate, including 30% of renewable energy sources among rural areas by 2020. This second target is also quoted as a contributor to the goal of achieving a 100% security of supply of fostered by periodic episodes of drought experienced in recent years, affecting hydroelectric generation capacity.

Considering the figures on energy uses and access, our initial conclusion on Ghana’s energy clean self-sufficiency becomes clearly precipitated, but the good news is that the country is taking solid steps towards achieving it before 2020.

After numerous pilot projects by international developers, the policy icebreaker was the inclusion in the SNEP (2006) objective to increase the use of renewable energy sources to 10%.

In December 2011, the renewable energy act 832 was passed by the Ghanaian Parliament, enabling the completion of the aforementioned goals.  Such a policy stepping stone would not have been possible without the backing of Ghanaian research, industrial and civil society, as well as the international investors that are shaping Ghana as the renewable energy hub of West Africa with multiple components:

Research and Technology hub:

 Linked to top U.S. Asian and European counterparts Kwame Nkrumah University of science and Technology has become reference in solar energy and biomass training hundreds of local scientists and engineers. The feasibility of electricity generation from biomass will be analyzed in a joint study by the Kumasi institute of technology, Energy and Environment (KITE), KNUST and the Barcelona tech UPC.

Financial Hub:

The country’s stability and robust policy framework on renewable, together with the incentives put in place, are crucial for national and international investors.

Industrial and Transitional Hub:

Ghanaian Industry has also reached renewable, which today counts on several companies with large experience both national and internationally. Foreign investors can easily find local business partners. As for today Ghana’s aim is to keep public and private investments flowing. A goal being fostered by Minister for Energy and Petroleum who announced advancing the target year to 2016 for achieving universal access to electricity in Ghana. Due to that, large investors are competing to build the biggest solar plant in Africa