Book on Ghana's energy crisis launched

Kumasi, Nov. 6, GNA- An eighty-five-page book on Ghana's recent energy crisis has been launched in Kumasi.

The book, authored by eight energy experts from the Engineering Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), seek to identify the causes and effects of the year-long energy crisis, which nearly brought the nation's economic activities to a halt. Professor Fred Ohene Akuffo, a Co-author of the book giving the highlights of the publication at the launch, attributed the crisis to the shortage of an alternative energy generation capacities in the country.


He said there was a considerable potential for energy savings particularly in the residential areas, where simple measures such as the use of energy efficient bulbs could result in significant reduction in the consumption of electric power.


Professor Akuffo, recounted other issues in the book as the fact that renewable energy in general and solar energy in particular could make important contribution to electricity supply, especially in rural areas, which currently do not have access to electricity.

He said the book also discusses the issue of inadequate financing for the implementation of planned activities as one of the major constraints in the power sector development in the country and affirmed that until that weakness was addressed the country might not be able to realize the dream of making the power crisis a thing of the past. In an address read on his behalf, Professor Kwesi Adarkwa, Vice Chancellor of the KNUST, stressed the need to harness the expertise at the university to establish energy centres to come out with ideas that could help tackle energy problems in the country.


Professor Ebenezer Jackson, a senior lecturer at the College of Engineering, who chaired the function, said KNUST had been at the forefront of energy technology and policy research in Ghana for several decades and commended the authors and editors of the book for their efforts and urged them to intensify their efforts in tackling national energy problems.