Jubilee House to go green

Jubilee House, the seat of government is to go green by August this year, as government plans to power the edifice with renewable energy sources.

Delivering the State of the Nation Address in Parliament on Thursday, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo disclosed that governments intend installing solar units to augment the energy needs of the Jubilee House.

The move, he said, would reduce government’s expenditure on utilities, promote the use of solar power for government and public buildings.

He said government’s target was to install up to 200 megawatts of distributed solar power by 2030 in both residential and non-residential facilities in order to reduce Government’s liabilities to Electricity Company of Ghana.

President Akufo-Addo said affordable and reliable energy was critical to realising government’s s vision of economic transformation.

Moreover, renewable energy had also become a necessary addition to the country's energy sector because it was relatively cheaper, and was key to the implementation of Ghana's international obligations under Sustainable Development Goal 7, on access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy, as well as Sustainable Development Goal 13, on urgent action to combat climate change.

The President said Government was committed to achieving an electricity generation mix that ensured diversity and security of energy supply.

"For this reason, we will continue to promote the deployment of renewable energy in line with our policy target of 10% renewables in the energy mix from the current 1%," he stated.

In line with this, President Akufo-Addo announced the tripling of the country's gas production during the year, from 100 to 300 million cubic feet per day.

He said the Energy ministry was taking steps to remove transmission bottlenecks, to ensure that Ghanaian gas reached power plants located in the eastern part of the country.

"I am confident that, by August this year, the situation would have been fully remedied to ensure Ghana uses locally produced gas for the bulk of its thermal power generation, saving substantial amounts of foreign exchange on imported fuels."