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The Integrated Social Development Center (ISODEC) has said for the
country to achieve universal access to electricity, the best route
would be to help rural communities develop renewable energy sources
such as wind and solar.
The Campaign Coordinator of the centre, Dr. Steve Manteaw, made the
suggestion when he spoke on the topic; "Towards energy mix for
national development" at a roundtable discussion at the University of
Cape Coast (UCC).
He called for support for urban households who would want to install
solar and added, "developing renewable energy sources is a good way to
develop the country's economy."
The roundtable discussion dubbed "Energy Transformation for National
Development" was jointly organised by the Institute for Oil and Gas
Studies (IOGS) and the Institute for Development Studies (IDS) of the
UCC.
Dr. Manteaw said the country's National Energy Policy (2010) which
covered renewable energy, promoted the development of solar and wind
facilities and other off-grid technologies, but this had not been
intergraded into the energy generation mix.
He proposed the adoption of a renewable energy law in tandem with the
new petroleum exploration and production bill especially when the
energy policy mentions that the country was well endowed with
hydrocarbons and was exploring options to develop nuclear energy.
Dr Manteaw said without a good renewable energy law, it was more
likely that traditional sources of "dirty energy" would be developed
instead.
He described as "short-sighted" the goal to develop thermal plants
hydropower facilities, transmission infrastructure, natural gas, coal
and nuclear to reach 5,0000MW installed capacity.
"Any investment in developing these resources should be weighed
against investing in renewable resources that carry no fuel cost once
they are established", he said.
Dr. Manteaw said the coal-fired plant project was ill-conceived,
especially at a time when the world was looking for ways to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions and that the preposition, amounted to
climate-change insensitivity and will be environmentally suicidal.
He said the project also defied a basic economic principle that
suggested that energy plants should be situated close to the source of
fuel since in the case of Ghana, the coal would be imported from
countries as far as South Africa, Mozambique, Brazil and beyond.
"Add the environmental cost and the project is thrown into realms of
absurdity," Dr Manteaw said.
Dr. Joe Asamoah, Executive Director, EnerWise Africa, enumerated
conventional and non-conventional sources of energy and said even
though solar was relatively expensive its maintenance was not.
He stated that solar panels, when overused became foul and stressed
the need to conserve energy wisely as interventions were explored to
find short and long-term solutions to the current energy crisis.
Prof. Emmanuel Gyimah, Head of Education Department of the College of
Distance Education, UCC, spoke about the energy crisis and appealed to
the academia not to let research by students gather dust on shelves
but use them to mitigate the situation.
Source: GNA
