Engineer advocates promotion of solar panel roofing in Ghana

Mr Charles K. Boakye of the Institute for Infrastructure Development on Thursday advocated the promotion of the use of roof space in commercial, industrial, public and private facilities for solar installations for electricity generation.

He said the use of solar panel roof tiles in Ghana would go a long way to promote electric energy conservation and lower energy bills.

Mr Boakye made the suggestion in his presentation at the National Development Planning Commission's (NDPC) second National Development Forum (NDF) in Accra.

The Forum on the theme: “Modernising Infrastructure for Accelerated Development: The Ghana Infrastructure Plan” sought to explore the prospects of significantly enhancing the infrastructure base of the country, as would be commensurate with the long-term vision of a solidly developed nation.

The presentation was taken from the Ghana Infrastructure Plan (GIP), which the Commission had prepared covering key infrastructure such as ICT, Energy, Railways, Roads, Aviation, Ports, Water Resources and Sanitation.

The Commission initiated the monthly development forum in May 2019, to ensure sustained interest and broad support of Ghanaians around key developmental issues, engage the public on development policy, and promote ownership and accountability for the implementation of national priorities.

Mr Boakye said the total power installed was targeted to increase from 3,800 megawatt (MW) as at 2018 to 50,168 MW by 2050, with energy generation of 297,200 Gigawatt hours (GWh).

He said under the programme, Ghana’s electricity generation per capita was expected to increase from 348 kilowatt hour (kWh) as of 2016 to 5,850 kWh by 2050.

He noted that transmission losses would reduce from 4.5 per cent as at 2016 to 2.5 per cent by 2050 and distribution losses would reduce from 23 per cent as at 2016 to eight per cent by 2050.

He said Ghana had reached its limit on hydro-energy, and therefore, there was the need to look into other areas such as renewable energy for electricity generation.

Mr Boakye said the share of renewable energy (solar, wind, wave and biofuel) in the national energy mix would increase from 38MW as of 2018 to 9,000MW by 2050, representing an increase from one per cent as at 2018 to 18 per cent of the energy mix by 2050.

With regards to nuclear and coal, Mr Boakye said about 12,800 MW (25 per cent of energy mix) of nuclear power would be developed by 2050.

“It is expected that Ghana’s first nuclear power plant will start by 2029,” he stated.

He pointed out that clean coal technology based on highly efficient ultra-supercritical and supercritical methods would be developed, and a total of 12,200MW (24 per cent of energy mix) of power would be obtained from coal sources.

He said both nuclear and coal would serve as prime base load energy to scale-up industrialisation and manufacturing.

On petroleum, Mr Boakye said new petroleum discoveries would be made to support declining stock, adding that, the Tema Oil Refinery would be expanded and production capacity increased from 45,000bpd to 60,000 barrel per day (bpd) with facilities for the production of bitumen.

He said a new 60,000bpd capacity oil refinery would be constructed in the Western Region, to process domestic oil finds in the offshore basins, and that, the pipeline infrastructure that transports petroleum products would be expanded to reduce road transportation of petroleum products.

Mr Boakye said household penetration of Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking would increase from 23 per cent as of 2017 to over 90 per cent by 2050.

Professor Stephen Adei, Chairman, NDPC said the new Commission that took over inherited a draft 40-year national infrastructure development plan from its predecessor; stating that “we think it is our duty to take them up, work with them and publicize what needs to be done, so that they form the foundation of our work”.

Prof Kwasi Kwafo Adarkwa, former Vice Chancellor, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, who chaired the function, said the NDF was a very good initiative, which must be sustained.

He urged the Commission to rotate the Forum around the country, since the stakeholder engagement was everybody’s concern.