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permits have also been issued for wind and wave power, whilst provisional licenses
have been issued to investors interested in producing power from biomass and
wastes, totaling 424MW.
“Installation
of the first turbines of 1000MW wave energy farm has commenced at Ada and we
expect the first electrons flow from the plant within two months,” said Dr. Alfred
Ofosu Ahenkorah, Executive Secretary of the Energy Commission.
Ghana’s
local manufacturing sector and industries are collapsing due to the inability
of the energy sector to meet their electricity needs.
Dr.
Ahenkorah says sustainable energy development means looking at indigenous
resources, including renewable energy. These resources include woodfuel –
charcoal and firewoods, solar and wind energy.
The
use of firewood cookstoves creates jobs for artisans along the cookstoves value
chain – producers of liners and fabricators of stoves, distributors and
retailers. Woodfuels could also be used as fuel for electricity generation.
“One
could cultivate wood plantations, manage existing forest and even forest
reserves and use the wastes, dead branches and fruits as fuel for biomass power
plants,” stated Dr. Ahenkorah.
He
spoke on: “Energy and Sustainable Development: the Ghanaian Experience” at the
2nd International Economics Conference in Kumasi, organized by the
Department of Economics at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and
Technology (KNUST).
He
acknowledged that “improved access to sustainable energy services in Ghana has
a great potential to create more jobs, improve lives, reduce the cost of goods,
generate revenue for government and stabilize the local currency.”
Sustainable
energy development, he noted, rests on the three pillars of environmental and
socio-economic integrity as well as energy security, without which there would
be no meaningful development.
“The
Ghanaian economy is currently unable to supply the needed energy for growth and
development. Even though Ghana is endowed with rich and natural sources of
energy such as petroleum, river bodies, forest and solar, other factors of
production are needed to ensure sustainable use of these natural resources,” said
Dr. (Sr.) Eugenia Amporfu, Head of the KNUST Department of Economics. The factors,
she said, include labour, human and physical capital as well as entrepreneurial
ability.
The
Energy Commission is currently reviewing and updating existing policies and
plans to steer the country towards the sustainable development, management and
utilization of both renewable and nonrenewable energy sources to support
economic growth of the country.
Dr.
(Sr.) Amporfu, has called for partnership from both the public and private
sectors to tap into the “rich brains” at the department as they work towards
creating a research centre.
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