GHANA – President of the Republic of Ghana Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has recently inaugurated two solar power plants in the country’s Upper West region which will boost access to energy.

The two power plants located in the town of Lawra were built by Spanish energy company Elecnor and have a capacity of 6.5MWp (Megawatt peak) instead of 4 MWp as initially planned by the Ghanaian government.

 Ghanaweb reported that the solar park will provide electricity capable of powering about 15,000 households in the upper west region of the country.

Elecnor is currently building another solar power plant in Kaleo, again in the Upper West region. A $25 million solar project with a projected capacity of 13MWp

The company is working in collaboration with the aim of developing, deploying and sustainably using the resources of the Volta River and other renewable energy sources found in the river basin.

Work on this second power plant being financed by the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), the German development agency and  is expected to be completed by December this year.

 Once completed, the two projects would generate enough energy to power up to 32,000 households and increase the geographical distribution of electricity production in Ghana.

The Kaleo solar power plant will be connected to the national grid, becoming the first power generation plant of its kind in the Upper West region to do so.

According to Ghanaian authorities, the two solar installations will also prevent the emission of 7,400 tonnes of CO2 per year, a significant boost to the environment.

Solar energy is poised to become an important source of renewable energy in Ghan partly due to the nation’s good solar power potential, with solar irradiation levels ranging between 4.5 to 6.0 kWh/m2 per day.

Another reason for solar energy popularity in Ghana is a national energy policy that enables solar PV plants to thrive.

The country’s national Energy Policy has a renewable energy goal which is to “increase the proportion of renewable energy in the total national energy mix and ensure its efficient production and use”.

The policy objective is to be achieved by the Government ensuring that renewable energy constitutes 10% of the national energy mix by 2030, and by imposing a mandatory purchase obligation on offtakers.

Also following international trends, in the last three years, solar power in Ghana attracted more investment than any other power technology.

The two solar projects in the upper west region are a testimony to this fact and demonstrate the country’s commitment to renewable energy.

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