The Future Is Bright

　　As with all developing nations， the need for astable electricity supply is vital and the West Africannation of Ghana is no exception. While its energy needis keeping pace with the country’s growing population，a rise in both domestic and industrial use is placing astrain on available power supplies.

　　According to the Ministry of Energy， Ghana hasan installed capacity of 1，960 megawatts made upof hydro and thermal facilities. Electricity demand iscurrently 1，400 megawatt-hours and growing at about10 percent per annum. It is also estimated that Ghanarequires capacity additions of about 200 megawatts tocatch up with increasing demand in the medium tolong term.

　　Dr. Alfred Ofosu Ahenkorah， Acting Executive Secretaryof the Energy Commission， has indicated that thedemand for energy in Ghana is expected to increasefrom about 6，900 gigawatt-hours in 2000 to 24，000gigawatt-hours by 2020.

　　The existing power plants are unable to attain fullgeneration capacity as a result of limitations in fuel supplyowing to rising fuel prices and uncertainty in rainfalland water inflows into the hydroelectric power facilities.Frequent power cuts in the country， with its resultantload shedding， have been a concern not only to thebusiness community in Ghana but also to PresidentMahama’s government. With these challenges， energyexperts have turned to alternative sources of power.

　　Ghana is well endowed with renewable energyresources， particularly solar and wind energy. Thedevelopment and use of renewable and waste energyresources have the potential to ensure Ghana’s energysecurity and also mitigate the negative climate changeimpact of energy supply and also solve national sanitationproblems.

　　However， a major challenge facing renewableenergy development is the high cost of these energysources owing to the current state of their technology.Moreover， the government has shown enough commitmentto the exploitation of renewable and wasteenergy to enhance energy supplies as well as improvesanitation in the country.

　　Between October 2011 and June 2012， an additional4，300 solar systems had been installed， which broughtthe total solar system installations in deprived off-gridcommunities to 9，536 since 2009. The solar systemsprovide basic power for vaccine refrigeration， lightingand operating communication equipment includingradio， computers， mobile phones， etc. The remote publicfacilities include rural clinics， schools and securityoutposts.

　　A health worker at Amoam-Achiase， Ejisu-Juaben，Western Region， Esther Dompreh， working with theCommunity-based Health Planning and Services(CHPS) Compound， is happy about the installation ofsolar lights in their community health center. She said itwas now possible to work into the night and also storemedicines in fridges.

　　“The solar lights have helped reduce infant mortalityrates not only in our region but also other regions inthe country that are provided with solar lights，” she toldChinAfrica.

　　The government had also developed a programwhich replaced kerosene lanterns with solar lanterns inremote off-grid communities nationwide. The cost benefitof this program is enormous as the annual subsidyon kerosene is enough to provide over 400，000 solarlanterns to poor rural households.

　　In Ghana’s 2014 budget presented to parliament，Finance Minister Seth Terkper said in order to facilitatethe energy sector’s objective of increasing the proportionof renewable energy in the national energy mixfrom the current 0.01 percent to 10 percent by 2020， anumber of projects were undertaken. These includedsolar systems in remote rural areas servicing schools，cooking stoves and mini-hydro projects.

　　Amina Fuseni， a 15-year-old junior high schoolstudent at Kasina-Nankana in the Upper East Regionin Ghana， has been benefiting immensely from theinstallation of solar lights in her village school. “I’m nowable to do my homework because of the solar lampsthe government has provided for our home. Previously，we had to sleep early because we did not have light tostudy，” she said.