S/A cooperation agreement on Energy Renewal sealed

The formal signing to consolidate the partnership between the Government of Ghana, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Governments of China and Denmark on Renewable Energy Technology Transfer has been concluded.

The partnership, under the project “China-Ghana-South-South Cooperation on Renewable Energy Technology Transfer”, is to ensure that Chinese renewable energy technologies optimally respond to priorities and needs in Ghana, while critical skills are transferred and developed to make the technologies practically work on the ground.

An official statement issued in Accra, and copied the Ghana News Agency, said the approach would 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 2.72 million dollars is a key component of UNDP’s support to the implementation of Ghana’s Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL Plan) Action Plan.

The Plan, adopted in 2012, according to the statement, included 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 cooperation,” it said. “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, would 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,” she said.

The initiative, she said, was one of the first examples of triangular South-South cooperation between China and Africa with support from a donor.

Zambia is a beneficiary of a similar project.