Ghana has developed a draft Electric-Vehicle Policy, to guide the development and upscale of electric vehicles in the country to decarbonise the transport sector.
The development would enable Ghana to achieve net-zero Carbon Dioxide (Co2) emissions by 2070.
According to the Ministry of Energy, currently, Ghana’s installed capacity of 5400 MW (Mega Watts) was significantly more than the current peak demand of about 3700MW.
“At this current rate, Ghana will need to create demand within the system to take the excess supply of electricity to power electric vehicles.
The Deputy Director of Renewable Energy at the Ministry of Energy, Mrs Doris Duodu, who was speaking on behalf of the Deputy Energy Minister, Herbert Krapa, noted that the governments of some of the biggest automotive markets around the world, had taken bold steps to make electric vehicles the only option shortly.
“They are determined to ban the sale of gas and diesel-powered vehicles completely by 2040. This includes China, the largest automotive market in the world, the United Kingdom, and other European countries,” she noted.
This was at a day’s stakeholders consultation on the Draft National Electric Vehicle Policy held here in Kumasi.
He observed that in addition to current oil and gas discoveries, the solar energy potential was enormous and could be harnessed to provide clean and sustainable energy for mobility.
“The adoption of smart technologies including electric vehicles provides an enduring answer to this problem,” he emphasised.
Dr Ernest Agyemang, senior lecturer at the University of Ghana and consultant, indicated that Energy Commission’s baseline study on electric vehicles and e-mobility in Ghana found that Ghana had two charging stations, available to the public, all located in Accra.
“Only three electric vehicle dealerships have functional service facilities and well-trained technicians, but many more dealerships are willing to venture into electric vehicle maintenance with the appropriate training and support,” he observed.
The study, he said, found huge gaps existed in Ghana in terms of electric vehicles and their benefits to owners and society at large.
He said about 17,660 plug-in electric vehicles were imported into Ghana between January 2017 and December 2021.
The Director of Policy, Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation at the Ministry of Transport, Mrs Irene Messiba, on her part, said the key interest of the stakeholders meeting was to collect the opinions of all the concerned stakeholders across the country.
According to her, the time was coming when we could no longer defer the subject of electric vehicles, “and that is why we have come down here today, to the Ashanti Region to be part of these stakeholder consultations”.
Transportation, she mentioned, remained by far, a most important sector for the proper functioning of any economy.
“The challenge confronting us, therefore, is how to remove the bad from the good, and electric vehicles in place of internal combustion engines seem to provide that answer,” she emphasized.
FROM KINGSLEY E.HOPE, KUMASI
