Selection of vendors for construction of nuclear plant this year — Energy Ministry

All is set for the announcement of vendor companies that would build the country’s first nuclear power plant to help diversify the country’s energy mix with cheaper and more sustainable electricity production.

It followed several talks and negotiations with international vendors and partners that expressed interest in building the plant.

The announcement, which is due this year, is one of the key milestones in phase two of the nation's Nuclear Power Project, after the completion of the first phase and a comprehensive report delivered to the government in 2021.

The Deputy Director in charge of Power (Nuclear and Alternative Energy) at the Ministry of Energy (MoE), Robert Sogbadji, said, “We are aggressively on and we are at phase two and by the end of the year, we would announce vendor companies to build our first nuclear power plant to diversify the energy mix by 2030”.

Event

He was briefing the media at a policy dialogue in Accra organised by the Centre of Excellence in Public Utility Regulation (CEPUR), on the theme: “Energy transition now: Fast, smart and resilient”.

It was held in commemoration of the 2024 World Sustainable Energy Day.

As part of the activities, there was stakeholder engagement in the sector to build consensus among practitioners, policymakers, researchers and investors, among others.

The participants also created a platform for the development of practical policy recommendations to help drive energy transition in the country and the West Africa sub-region as a whole.

Mr Sogbadji said the country’s energy transition started many years ago under the National Determined Contribution Programme (NDCP).

He said the development of the energy transition framework had intensified the process.

“So in moving towards clean energy sources such as solar, biomass and wind, we are going to leverage a lot on mitigation and adaptation methods under the energy transition programme.

“Oil and gas would continue to be part of our energy mix through a sustainable system, that is why the government seeks to introduce a carbon capture technology to help cut down emissions,” Mr Sogbadji said.

He said the transition plan details a credible pathway of how the country could achieve net-zero energy-related carbon emissions through the deployment of low-carbon solutions across key sectors of the economy, including oil and gas, industry, transport, cooking and power.

Integrating process

The Executive Secretary of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), Dr Ishmael Ackah, stressed the need for the country to accelerate the integration of other sources of clean energy into its energy mix.

“I think we should not just be consumers of clean energy, but a major player efficiently contributing to the assembling and manufacturing to create jobs beyond electricity or power,” he said.

Dr Ackah said the country had set a target of 2070 to fully transition from the use of fossil fuel to renewable energy under a new energy transition and investment plan.

An official of the Ghana National Gas Company, Dr Riverson Oppong, said natural gas would play a crucial role in the nation’s transition from fossil fuel to renewables.