Workshop on renewable energy opens in Accra

The Ministry of Energy has initiated a refrigeration appliance market transformation project, to reduce the energy consumption of refrigerating appliances from the current average of 1,200kWh to 600 kWh per appliance per annum.

Under the project, consumers who turn in their old refrigerating appliances would be supported financially to pay part of the cost of a new efficient refrigerator, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, Deputy Minister of Energy said in Accra on Monday.

“The consumer, who opts for higher efficiency refrigerating appliance will receive further rebates depending on the level of efficiency of the appliance.”

Alhaji Fuseini announced this at the opening session of a two-day Regional Workshop on Financing and Investments in Mitigation Actions in West Africa, organized by ECOWAS Regional Centre for Renewable Energy Efficiency (ECREEE) in collaboration with the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Business Climate Facility (BizClim).

The workshop is focused on creating the enabling environment for investment and innovative finance in Nationally Appropriated Mitigation Actions (NAMAs), especially in the renewable energy (RE), energy efficiency (EE) and transport sector in West Africa by catalysing the introduction of the necessary legal and regulatory reforms.

It is being attended by high-level decision makers and experts from the sub-region, to provide visible leadership and political commitment to a common strategy for successfully shaping vibrant NAMA activities in the region.

Alhaji Fuseini said financial support from UNDP, Global Environment Facility and the Multilateral Fund of Canada had been secured for the implementation of the project, adding that, steps were being taken to stop the importation of such used appliances to Ghana from the beginning of next year.

He said Ghana had installed automatic capacity banks (ACP) at selected government institutions to reduce government expenditure on electricity and that the pilot project implemented in six government institutions had resulted in the reduction of power consumed from 11,743kVA to 9,889kVA.

This he said, had saved Ghana about GH¢39,145 a month or GH¢469,740 per annum; the projects and others like the installation of solar systems, Bui hydro dam under construction were being pursued to enable government to increase its energy supply for socio-economic development and poverty alleviation.

Alhaji Fuseini said in an effort to develop other renewable energy resources including wind, biomass and small hydropower, a renewable Energy Act 2011 (Act 832) had been put in place to provide regulatory framework and incentives to encourage the private sector to invest in renewable energy plant.

He therefore, welcomed the regional workshop that sought to introduce legal and regulatory reforms to promote innovative NAMAs, which would help drive the low carbon development agenda within the sub-region.

Ms Sherry Ayittey, Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, in a speech read for her, said despite the region’s energy endowments like the vast hydro, solar, wind, and bio-energy potentials, the region continued to be confronted with the interrelated challenges of energy access, energy security and climate change mitigation and adaptation simultaneously.

She said such energy endowment had the ability to contribute towards a cleaner and sustainable energy future for the region, that needed to be tapped to unlock the economic potential of ECOWAS and effectively contribute towards poverty reduction within the ECOWAS Region.

Mr. Mahama Kappiah, Executive Director, ECREEE, said the NAMA approach had been adopted for the region to discuss and adopt because “Experts are of the view that NAMAs could be the game-changer in the global efforts to reduce green house gas emissions, as they are more likely to be a more effective mechanism for the world’s industrialised nations to help developing nations meet global emission reduction target”.

He noted that under the NAMAs approach, more emphasis would be given to providing financial assistance, technology transfer and capacity building support from developed countries to developing countries to reduce emissions.

NAMA could therefore, potentially bridge the gap between finance, economic development and climate change, thus presenting the possibility for developing countries to obtain additional funding for low carbon growth, he added.**