US$350 million solar project for Ghana
Private Investors, Mere Power Nzema Limited (MPNL), is awaiting a Government Consent and Support Agreement (GCSA) to kick-start its solar energy project in the Western Region of Ghana.
The project, valued at about US$350 million, will make use of natural resources to generate solar energy to supplement what is currently being supplied to the national grid by the Electricity Company of Ghana.
According to the Director of MPNL, Mr Paul Forjoe, the GCSA, is to assure them of the government’s consent to pay for the power to be supplied, should ECG fail to meet the power purchase agreement.
Speaking in an interview with the GRAPHIC BUSINESS after a media workshop to brief journalists on the project, Mr Forjoe said the ultimate aim was to generate 155 megawatts of power during peak production annually.
The project comes at a time when the country struggling to increase production capacity from the present 2,800 megawatts to about 5,000 megawatts by the close of 2015.
Presently, although the production capacity outstrips the demand, it is estimated that the present demand growth of about 12 per cent annum makes it mandatory for efforts to be hastened to hit production capacities that are twice what has been anticipated for the year 2015.
“We will start from zero and over a 24-month period move to 155 megawatts. What this means is, if in the first month we generate eight megawatts into the grid, the following month, we will have 16 megawatts, the following month we will have 24 until we get to the 155 MW,” he explained.
The company, he explained, had been working on the project close to four years now and with the passage of the Renewable Energy Law in 2011, he is optimistic that with the additional energy support that the company would provide, Ghana’s energy system would be more resilient.
The solar energy project will make use of Ghana’s abundant sunshine resource and its potential to help the country have a sustainable energy system.
The company will finance, build, own and operate the solar power project near the villages of Awiaso and Akpandue in the Ellembelle District of the Western Region in Ghana.
The solar photovoltaic power plant will consist of over 600,000 solar modules producing 155 megawatts of power for the country.
The initial phase will begin in September, this year, and it is expected that power generation unto the national grid will begin by the first quarter of 2015.
The Project Director, Mr Doug Coleman, explained that Ghana had abundant sunshine that could be harnessed to facilitate national development.
“Mere Power Nzema Limited are, therefore, committed to partnering with Ghana to make use of this critical natural resource in order to generate solar energy that will supplement what is currently being supplied to the national power grid,” Mr Coleman reiterated.