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Thursday, August 21, 2014

K-Poly boosts Ghana’s energy security with centre for renewable energy

The Kumasi Polytechnic is seeking to boost Ghana’s energy security with the establishment of the Centre in Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency.

The drive, according to Rector, Prof. Nicholas Nsowah Nuamah, is to help reduce energy poverty in rural and peri-urban areas through the provision of affordable and readily accessible energy and allied services.

“We are looking at new ways of providing energy to the people of Ghana and we realize that the renewable energy is the best for Ghana, especially the rural communities,” he noted.

The Centre will harness the potentials of solar, wind, bioenergy and energy efficiency as viable alternatives in the country’s energy mix.

Prof. Nsowah Nuamah says the facility will particularly leverage on its investments in solar-powered products which have been developed over the years. These include solar cooker, solar motor bike and fufu pounding machine.

“We’ve invested a lot in human resource and research and we have the competencies and the ability to transfer knowledge to people,” he said.
 
The Centre is expected to train 200 artisans and local businesses in the area of renewable energy and energy efficiency at the end of the initial two year project phase.

The objective is to create jobs, contribute household income and national gross domestic product (GDP).

Prof. Nsowah Nuamah says entrepreneurship is an important component of training at the centre, adding that a strategy for commercialization has been developed under a project with COTVET and the Ministry of Science, Environment, Technology and Innovation.

Majority of residents in rural Ghana do not have access to the national grid.

Senior Researcher at the Centre, Edem Bensah, says opportunities to disseminate the available technology would be enhanced with the availability of funding.

“In isolated communities, people usually live sometime below the poverty line and funding becomes an issue but all these can be addressed with policy. We need a very viable and workable national policy that would enable the technology centres to disseminate whatever we develop to the people who need them,” he stated.


Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh 

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