President John Mahama has assured investors and other stakeholders of the government’s commitment to transform Ghana’s energy sector from hydrocarbons to renewables.
President Mahama made the remarks during a discussion on Ghana’s bold vision for becoming West Africa’s leading petrochemical hub while driving forward its renewable energy agenda at the 2025 African CEOs Forum Awards in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
He reiterated that Ghana was in a transition to green energy; hence, the Renewable Energy Act was passed, which stipulates that at least 10 per cent of the nation’s energy mix should come from renewable sources.
“I’m ashamed to say we are under three per cent at the moment. I think 2.71 per cent of our total power production is renewable, and it’s mainly in the solar space. Solar, Ghana has a comparative advantage to produce solar because we have abundant sunlight,” he said.
He reaffirmed Ghana’s ambition to strike a delicate balance between energy sovereignty, climate action and fiscal stability; a strategy not just for powering the nation but transforming it.
He said the Government was committed to increasing Ghana’s electricity capacity in solar in terms of bigger solar power generation for both industrial and household purposes.
“We’re giving licenses to several companies to begin to set up large-scale solar, 20 megawatts, 50 megawatts, and 100 megawatts, so that we can catch up with at least a 10 per cent power from renewable sources.”
The President said the time had come also for Ghana to follow in the footsteps of some of the Scandinavian countries, including Germany, where people could invest in solar and their households and feed any excess into the national grid.
“We do not yet have the regulation to be able to do that. I have a farm where I’ve installed solar. I’m producing more solar than I need. The utility has given me a meter that allows me to feed the excess power in. So as a responsible citizen, I did so, and so I’m feeding all the excess solar power into the grid, but they say there’s no policy to pay me for the solar, so it’s become a charity.”
On whether he was okay with that? The President responded that he had a personal interest in making sure that they were able to be paid for the solar that they put into the national grid.
He said as part of their agenda for resetting the nation, the Ministry responsible for Energy was named the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition, to reset that Ministry to have a broader view of energy other than what it was traditionally.
He said the country was looking at the medium term, the longer term, where it should be between now and 2040 and 2050.
The President said government was going to gradually eliminate fossil fuels from power production; saying “I believe that within the next four years with the kind of investments that are taking place, we should be able to generate 100 per cent on natural gas and if we put in more solar, then we’re going to rely mainly on those two”.
He, however, noted that in the foreseeable future for public transportation, especially moving goods and services, heavy trucks and all that, they were going to have to continue to rely on oil and diesel.
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