While 72% of Ghana’s population has access to electricity, the Northern, upper East, and upper West regions have access rates of 44%, 30%, and 32%, respectively.The Ministry of Energy in 1989 instituted the National Electrification Scheme (NES) as Government’s principal policy to extend electricity to all parts of the country over a 30-year period from 1990-2020. 643 communities were connected to the national grid in 2012, bringing to the total of communities connected nationally to about 5,500 and a national average coverage of about 72% as of December 2012, just as in 2011 due to population growth catching up with the rate of electrification. All regional and district capitals have been connected to the national grid. According to the Ministry of Energy, over 3,000 communities earmarked for electrification since 2011 would continue. Also, funding arrangement had been secured for about 2,000 communities earmarked for electrification in 2013 and beyond.
The Government of Ghana has a national energy policy aimed at providing affordable access to electricity to all communities by 2020 and becoming a net exporter of electricity by 2015. This can be achieved by increasing the capacity of electricity generation (from 2,000 to 5,000 MW by 2015) as well as updating the necessary transmission and distribution infrastructure within the power sub-sector.The national renewable energy policy of Ghana is to increase the renewable energy components to 10% in the national energy mix by the year 2020. The renewable energy policy would be concentrate on three areas, namely solar and wind, alternative fuel for transportation and biomass pricing. The Government would institute measures to overcome the challenges in technology, market constraints and other institutional barriers inherent in investments in solar and wind. Further, the government would create a favorable regulatory and fiscal regimes as well as attractive pricing system to enhance investment in the sector.The National Electrification Scheme (NES) has been a largely successful government program initiated with donor assistance in 1989 with a goal of extending the grid throughout the country by 2020. To date, all district capitals are on the national grid, as are many communities along the high and medium tension power lines.With the stated goal of the NES, there is little room for decentralized energy sources such as solar home systems. In addition to the high cost of the systems, people in communities without grid power remain convinced that the grid will be extended to them soon and are not willing to pay substantially more for solar energy in the short term.It should be noted that, the cost of extending the grid to low-voltage points is estimated at $2,000-$3,000 per connection, a range which is comparable to the cost of a mid-sized solar electric system. This is in addition to the cost of medium and low voltage transmission lines. Under these circumstances, the NES has shut out a large sector of the market for photovoltaic systems. The subsidies enjoyed by users under the NES are also not available to RET users, who are forced to bear the full cost of their power systems in advance.The current environment heavily favours extension of the grid even to areas where it is not economically justified. The needs of such communities could be easily met with the same level of subsidy enjoyed by grid users if they were given the choice between solar, wind, micro-hydro and other sources. (Attachie and Amuzuvi, 2012)
SolarThe solar resource is abundant in Ghana. The monthly average solar irradiation is between 4.4 and 5.6 kWh/m2/day, with sunshine duration of between 1,800 and 3,000 hours per annum. However, till recently, little was done to exploit this resource for grid-connected power generation. Solar power has considerable potential to serve households in un-electrified villages.VRA has just completed a small 2-megawatt-peak (MWp) solar photovoltaic (PV) grid-connected plant as a pilot project in Navrongo in the Northern Electricity Distribution Company (NEDCo) areas of operation, which should be commissioned later this year. Four sites in the environs of Kaleo (near Wa), Lawra, Jirapa, and Navrongo have been identified and acquired for a total of 10-MWp PV plants. VRA is seeking concessionary funding to develop the remaining 8 MWp.Wind EnergyGhana’s best wind resources are found primarily along narrow stretches of its eastern coastline. Along the coastline, the speeds (mostly 6–7 meters per second [m/s] at 50 m) are classified as “marginal” for wind generation. Nevertheless, grid-connected wind power is likely to be cheaper than grid-connected solar power. Clearly, it will be several years before the full extent to which Ghana’s wind resource is technically and financially viable for development on a large scale becomes clear. Yet, it is already evident that wind power is not likely to prove to be a substantial contributor to the power supply in the next decade.Biomass & biogasBiomass is Ghana‘s dominant energy resource in terms of its endowment and consumption. Approximately, about 20.8 million hectares of 23.8 million hectare land mass of Ghana is covered with biomass resources. Biomass fuels in Ghana mainly comprise of charcoal, plant residues and wood fuel. Wood fuel is the major form of biomass used as energy source for both domestic and commercial purposes in Ghana; about 90% of rural households depend on wood fuel and other biomass resources for domestic purposes (cooking, and heating, etc).Wood fuel is the dominant and cheapest fuel available on the Ghanaian market; the production, transportation and sale of wood fuels are all undertaken by the private sector. There is no official government pricing regulatory body responsible for setting the prices of wood fuels in Ghana; rather the pricing is dependent on the supply and demand conditions.These resources have not yet been developed for generating electricity in Ghana, and there are no projects in an advanced planning stage. Some developers are undertaking feasibility studies for biomass projects.HydroGhana has significant hydropower potential, and is already tapping this potential with its Akosombo, Kpong and Bui plants, which provide the majority of electricity in the country. Hydropower potential is estimated to be about 2,420 MW, and in addition to the large-scale Bui plant under construction, 21 additional hydro sites have been identified but not yet developed. Ghana is looking to diversify its power resources, as its reliance on hydroelectricity make it particularly vulnerable to drought.