(myjoyonline.com)
The African Center for Energy Policy (ACEP) has backed calls for Ghana to choose wind power as the solution to the protracted energy crisis.
This comes after the flagbearer of the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Ivor Kobina Greenstreet outlined the party’s research points to a major shift in the solutions to meet Ghana’s energy demands at an Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) evening encounter on Tuesday, June 29.
A prolonged energy crisis in Ghana has seen the collapse of some factories and businesses. At the peak of the crisis in 2015, more than 900 megawatts had to be shed.
A Turkish Karpower barge which was expected to add over 200MW of power to improve the situation arrived in Ghana late 2015.
Lately, some parts of the country have been experiencing frequent power outages, suggesting that the county’s power situation is still not stable.
Speaking about the CPP’s plans to end the crisis at the encounter, Mr Greenstreet said wind energy will be cheaper and easier to operate.
“Volta River lies between two parallel mountain range…installing wind turbines in this corridor will utilize wind energy. Standard wind turbine at an average height of 120m with a diameter of 85m would generate 3MW of energy per unit,” he indicated.
He said installing the turbines at a distance of 300m triangular will generate 9000MW of energy which will meet Ghana’s energy needs.
The Head of Research at ACEP told Joy News even though the levels of investments will be huge, it is the solution to the unreliable fuel supply for our thermal plants.
Ishmael Ackah said, “I think that we should have a diversify, sustainable fuel strategy that we going to have about let’s say 40% component thermal plant, by 2030 we are going to have about 20% renewable energy component.”
He added that although the initial investment cost of renewable energy is expensive, it is cheaper than sustaining the thermal plants that the country currently use.