An indigenous firm, SunPower Innovations, is ready to partner the government to produce and deliver solar energy to businesses and communities in Ghana.
Since its inception, SunPower Innovations has installed more than seven megawatts of Solar PV capacity and undertaken major installations at shopping centres, banks and other financial institutions, educational institutions and dozens of commercial projects in Ghana, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.
According to the Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ernest Amissah, it is time for the government and other development-funding institutions to partner indigenous companies like SunPower Innovations to expand their operations, a situation that will lead to enormous job creation.
At the commissioning of a one-megawatt off-grid solar system for Special Ice Factory, manufactured by SunPower Innovations, Mr Amissah said “the government wants to do 1D1F. But if you build 250 factories, where are you going to get that energy from? If you build one oil refinery, where are you to get the energy from? When you build one gold refinery, where are you going to get that energy from?”
“You want to integrate bauxite, where are you going to get that energy from? So, I think we have to shy away from saying we have expensive Power Purchasing Agreements (PPAs), negotiate the expensive PPAs, but at the same time open the market for renewables to come in and take over the energy generation for the up-and-coming industries. And I think it will be a bigger change in the economy of Ghana,” he stressed.
According to the available data, Ghana currently has over 4,000 megawatts of installed generation capacity, though actual availability rarely exceeds 2,400 megawatts due to changing hydrological conditions, inadequate fuel supplies and dilapidated infrastructure.
The Director of Renewable and Nuclear Energy at the Energy Ministry, Wisdom Ahiataku-Togobo, said the construction of the first phase of a 50-megawatt solar PV plant to be hybridised with the 400 megawatts Bui Power Authority had commenced.
“The first 10 megawatts is expected to be connected to the national grid by the end of September, whilst the remaining 40 megawatts will be completed in December this year,” he said.
According to Mr Ahiataku-Togobo, the move would not only boost the energy capacity of the nation, but also diversify the sources of power.
BY TIMES REPORTER
