Renewables are key to achieving universal access to electricity, says IES

Business news for Friday, September 25, 2020

Source: Business 24

2020-09-25

The Institute for Energy Security (IES), the think tank on energy research, has said that Ghana needs to increase investment in renewable energy to help it achieve universal access to electricity by the new target date of 2025.

The proportion of the population with access to electricity reached 85 percent in 2019. Previously, the government had set 2020 as the target year to achieve universal access to electricity, but this has been pushed forward to 2025.

Failure to meet the national renewable energy goal of a 10 percent contribution to the power generation mix contributed to the failure to achieve universal access to electricity as initially projected, the IES said.

The think tank’s comments were contained in an analysis of renewable energy policies in the manifestos of the ruling New Patriotic Party (PNP) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

“After continuously increasing power generation capacity from primarily thermal sources and increasing access to electricity through grid expansions, now is the time for Ghana to be religious in its access policy goal 100. % national to electricity using renewable energy as a catalyst, ”he said.

Universal access to electricity is “feasible with the support of renewable energy sources, since a considerable proportion of the communities that hope to connect to the national electricity grid are currently difficult to access because they are lakeside communities, while others they are planted on islands that require connection by marine sub-cables “.

The IES said the country should do more if it is to meet its national goal of using renewable energy for 10 percent of total energy production by the new 2030 target date.

The think tank said that although Ghana abounds in potential renewable energy resources, particularly biomass, solar and wind and, to a lesser extent, small and mini hydropower, most of this potential remains largely untapped.

For the universal access ambition to become a reality, the access rate must grow by an average of 3 percentage points each year to the target date, he added.

Meanwhile, data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) points to a continued decline in solar and wind energy costs.

Data indicates that solar photovoltaic (PV) prices based on competitive acquisitions could average about 4 cents (US $ 0.039) per kilowatt-hour for projects commissioned in 2021, 42 percent less than in 2019 and more. one-fifth less than the cheapest fossil fuel competitor, such as coal plants.