Poor roads hinder wind-power

Poor road network linking major cities and towns to sites identified for potential windmills to generate renewable energy is hampering efforts by the Volta River Authority (VRA) to produce power from wind, officials of the largest power producer has said.

“Transporting the components turbines, masts and the like from one place to the next is a very big challenge, especially with wind energy. We have mapped out some potential sites; but looking at the road network as we speak, we cannot transport the components.

“If we want to transport them given the current poor roads, we have to airlift them; and the cost of airlifting also goes into the total project cost. If we are not careful we will exceed the 18-22 cents/KWH price.

“The energy has to be affordable. If we are not careful we will get the energy but cannot pay for it. So we are looking at a mix where we will blend all of them, and then we will have economic tariffs that are manageable by all of us and able to sustain the sector,” VRA officials told the media at an encounter to explain its planned coal project.

The Authority has identified two sites in Anloga, Volta Region, and Wokumagbe and Goi in the Ada West district for construction of 150MW Wind-Power Projects.

The Authority’s solar power projects are also at various stages. The 2.5MW Navrongo Solar Power Plant is currently operational, while an 8MW Solar Power plant in Kaleo in the Upper West Region and a 4 MW Solar Power plant in Lawra in the Upper West Region have received clearance from the Environmental Protection Agency and are at the financing stage.

More than three years of power crisis have brought to the fore the issue of generating power from renewable sources to augment thermal and hydro power.

The VRA however believes that renewable energy sources will not be enough if the country is to meet its energy demand.

“In most places where renewables are promoted, people are encouraged to do it on rooftops. The Energy Commission is looking at it. But if you look at the scale of power generation for the VRA, there will be a challenges as we go forward in terms of land. The other issue is that some of the renewables in our set-up are not cheap. With solar, for instance, the feed-in tariff is currently between 18-22 cents. If you convert it into local currency, you will see the impact on the consumer,” VRA officials said.

Proposals by the VRA to construct a 700MW coal power plant have also been met with criticism in some quarters about the potential environmental impact from adding coal to the generation mix.

The coal plant, to be sited in the coastal town of Aboano in the Ekumfi district of the Central Region, is expected to help diversify the Authority’s power generation portfolio to meet the growing energy demand.

Current electricity demand for the country currently stands at about 2,225MW. This is growing by 10 percent per annum and is expected to hit 7,000MW by 2030.

Given the current gas demand of about 450Mscf per day, indigenous gas and limited supply from the West Africa Gas Pipeline are unable to meet demand. Available indigenous gas is also expected to run out by 2036.

The China-Africa Development Fund (CADFund) is to provide an about-US$1.5billion long-term loan for construction of two 350MW coal-fired plants

“Domestic sewage water, coal waste-water and oil waste-water will be treated separately and then reused. Only circulating cooling sea water will be drained out of the plant. A thermal plume dispersion modelling is being undertaken to predict the permissible size of the mixing zone and its effect on the sea. Effluent levels are to be monitored as part of the project monitoring plan,” said Ben A. Sackey, Manager, Environment and Social Impact-VRA.

“We will conduct reasonable overall planning for the plant area; arrange high-noise equipment far from the area which is sensitive to noise; and reduce noise level by green-belt planting – that is, planting arbor and shrubs on roadsides around the main powerhouse and nearby other sound sources as required, so as to reduce noise through the noise-reduction function of plants.

“The proposed power-plant sites are far away from the nearby villages; it is predicted that the contribution value of power-plant noise to the residential areas will be low, so power-plant noise won’t disturb the local residents,” he added.