Government’s commitment towards renewable energy laudable – 3SIL CEO

The Chief Executive Officer of Strategic Security Systems International Limited (3SiL) the parent company of Strategic Power Solutions (SPS), the only solar panel manufacturing plant in West Africa, Mr. Ofori Boateng has lauded plans outlined by government in the 2017 budget statement towards the development of renewable energy.

Government has initiated plans to increase access to lighting in deprived off-grid homes by increasing solar lanterns in rural non-electrified households to two million. It has also promised to scale up the Renewable Energy Programme.

Mr. Boateng said these are initiatives that can easily be attained with the right private sector partnership.

“As the preferred developers for the 50 Megawatt solar hybrid Bui Power Authority project, SPS is willing to work with the Government and the Ministry of Energy to complete the project in a timely and cost-effective manner”, he stressed.

Mr. Ofori Boateng mentioned that even though the Ghana Scaling-up Renewable Energy Programme (SREP) which will see the implementation of 55 mini-grids, 38,000 solar home systems in off-grid communities and 15,000 units of solar rooftop installations can help increase the renewable energy component in Ghana’s energy mix, government needed to be more aggressive with its plans for the sector.

SPS launched West Africa’s only solar manufacturing plant in March last year and has since produced at the capacity of 30 Megawatts which will be upgraded to 100 Megawatts by the end of 2017.

Its parent company, 3SiL, has under the “Solar Lighting Programme’, distributed 1.2 million solar torch lights to farmers across cocoa, sheanut and coffee growing areas of the country.