Ghana, China sign renewable energy pact

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has brokered a transfer of renewable energy technology from China to Ghana agreement with funding from the Government of Denmark.

The formal signing ceremony to consolidate the partnership between the Government of Ghana, UNDP and Governments of China and Denmark on Renewable Energy Technology Transfer has been concluded.

The partnership is under the project ‘China-Ghana-South-South Co-operation on Renewable Energy Technology Transfer.’

Its objective is to ensure that Chinese renewable energy technologies are optimally responding to priorities and needs in Ghana, and critical skills are also transferred and developed to make the technologies actually work on the ground.

This approach will have a tremendous impact on increasing access to energy for the rural poor in Ghana.

The four-year project, funded by the Government of Denmark at $2,720,000, is a key component of UNDP’s support to the implementation of Ghana’s Sustainable Energy For All.

The Plan, adopted in 2012, includes concrete commitments and actions aimed at improving access to modern forms of fuels for cooking and promoting productive uses of energy, with focus on the use of renewable energy resources.

“We want this project to represent a best practice in South-South co-operation. We want it to effectively address Ghana’s need to increase universal energy access through off-grid community-based electrification and increased share of renewable energy,” said Ms Gita Welch, acting Resident Representative of UNDP in Ghana.

The project, which focuses on technologies such as solar and wind for irrigation, biogas, mini hydro and improved cook stoves, will have private sector development as its centre piece.

“In a fast-growing economy like Ghana, there are substantive opportunities for private sector investments in the energy section, in particular in renewable energy and clean technologies,” noted Gita.

The initiative is one of the first examples of triangular South-South co-operation between China and Africa with support from a donor.

The partnership includes Zambia as the second African country working with China through UNDP, around the promotion of the UN’s initiative ‘Sustainable Energy for All,’ which was made possible by a funding from the Government of Denmark.