Yingli Namene builds 401kw solar plant for Central University

The Mitsio Campus of the Central University College (CCU) at Dahwenya in the Greater Accra Region is to benefit from a 401 kilowatts (kW) solar plant meant to help reduce the school's cost of electricity consumption.

The plant was designed and built by experts in solar energy provisioning to businesses in the country, Yingli Namene West Africa. The project was enabled by ecoligo, whose solar-as-a-service solution removes barriers for businesses like the university to get powered by solar.

The project has been completed and now due to be commissioned on October 15.

The Managing Director of Yingli Namene, Mr Firmin Nkaleu Ngassam, disclosed this to the media on October 7 at the fifth Renewable Energy Fair taking place in Accra.

Mr Ngassam said the CUC project would add to a number of other turnkey projects that the company has built for businesses in its few years in the country.

He mentioned a 400kw plant for Kasapreko Ghana Limited, which the Senior Minister, Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, singled out for praise at the opening ceremony of the fair on October 7, the connection of three branches of Stanbic Bank Ghana to solar under a pilot basis and the construction of a similar plant for a nongovernmental organisation.

The MD of Yingli Namene said the company was proud to be extending its expertise into the education sector with the construction of the 401kwp for CUC.

He said the unique nature of the education sector meant that more lives would be touched.

"We all know that when people are trained somewhere, they will obviously learn from their environment and that is why we are particularly proud of this achievement and so we are really happy to be commissioning this," he said.

He said the company's unique way of executing its projects ensured that clients do no have to make upfront payments but rather use the plant and make monthly payments to defray the project cost.

"We organise everything, build the plant and the client just pays monthly. So, it is more like pay as you go for solar," he said.

He was optimistic that the plant would help save CUC money by reducing its electricity bill while eliminating the inconveniences associated with using power from the national grid.

"This is more like Yingli Namene gives you solar for free and every month, we give you savings," he said.

Mr Ngassam encouraged businesses to patronise solar and approach the company to see how it could help them diversify their energy mix to help avoid distractions to their operations.

He also lauded the government for putting in place a conducive environment that allows solar usage to thrive.

On recent revelations that the government was planning of fixing solar at the Jubilee House, which is the seat of government, the MD of Yingli Namene said his outfit had submitted an expression of interest (EoI) to the government, seeking an opportunity to help make the plan a reality.

He was hopeful that the government would give the EoI a positive response to enable the country to benefit from the expertise and comfortable arrangement of Yingli Namene in the provisioning of solar power.