For the avoidance of doubt, and for fear of being quoted out of context, I am reproducing my full comments on the subject - see below:
As far as I know Prof. Allotey, he has been a strong supporter and promoter of solar ener ... read full comment
For the avoidance of doubt, and for fear of being quoted out of context, I am reproducing my full comments on the subject - see below:
As far as I know Prof. Allotey, he has been a strong supporter and promoter of solar energy and the other alternative energy systems, as important sources in our energy mix. Indeed, Prof. Allotey has installed a sizeable quantity of solar panels and battery systems in his household to complement his energy use. I strongly belief that the interviewer/reporter quoted him out of context, and may not fully have conveyed the ‘expensive’ and ‘proven’ aspects of the comments. If, as I suspect, he was being asked whether he would advise the Government to build equal magnitudes of solar power systems, comparable to that of Akosombo, Bui, TICO, etc., then the answer is that solar at that magnitude would be too expensive, and that present efficiencies are hovering around 20 percent - though research is proving that these could improve to 60 percent or more in the future. If on the other hand, he was being asked for individuals/private installations, he would have encouraged the government to drastically ease or remove all duties and levies for alternative energy sources; that individuals who could afford to bring in the solar lamps, solar panels and wind generators - and associated controllers, inverters, batteries, etc. for individual use – should be vigorously encouraged to do so. I recently cleared a 1kW wind generator through Customs – no customs charges, but other levies amounted to GHC 428, plus local shipping company handling charges amounted to GHC 710 (after already having paid USDollars 210 to the sellers for the cost of shipment). The clearance process from the harbour also took two weeks – go, come, GCNET has not processed the request, etc. Government must also lean on local shipping companies to minimize charges for solar/wind goods to the barest minimum. Let us make solar, wind and other alternative small-scale power systems as common place as we now find mobile phones everywhere in Ghana. ECG would then be free to cater mainly for heavy industry and other SMEs to continue with their businesses uninterrupted. Indeed, the Energy Ministry has proposed the distribution of Net-meters - which would enable owners of alternative energy sources to upload excess energy during peak hours to the grid - such consumers would then be credited with reductions in their ECG bills, by letting the meters run backwards, when individuals produce power for ECG. Remember, if only a million of us produce solar/wind energy at an average of 1kW during the peak hours, this would equal to 1000MW – which is about the same capacity as the Akosombo dam! After all, does the saying ‘little drops of water (solar installation) make a mighty ocean (energy bank)’ ring a bell?
Abra Kuma 9 years ago
Laala A.Kofi, an insightful and constructive contribution, thanks. A good listener makes for a good problem solver. You are a critical thinker and an admirable peacemaker. Be well!
Laala A.Kofi, an insightful and constructive contribution, thanks. A good listener makes for a good problem solver. You are a critical thinker and an admirable peacemaker. Be well!
francis kwarteng 9 years ago
Ei Abra Kuma,
How are you, Peacemaker?
I have enjoyed reading all the comments here. Laala A. Kofi's lengthy commentary says a lot.
I have been wondering if what we read earlier on about Prof. Allotey (and Bola Ray) ... read full comment
Ei Abra Kuma,
How are you, Peacemaker?
I have enjoyed reading all the comments here. Laala A. Kofi's lengthy commentary says a lot.
I have been wondering if what we read earlier on about Prof. Allotey (and Bola Ray) truly reflected what Prof. Allotey said in the interview.
I wonder because Prof. Allotey's international (scientific) work has some technical relation to energy (nuclear energy is one area; the operates on the priciple of nuclear fission).
Prof. Allotey's controversial remarks remind me of the controversy conservative Christian-scientist Dr. Francis Collins, the pillar behind the Human Genome Project, generated by his homesexuality-cum-genetic pontification. Sometimes you wonder!
Anyway, that is beside the point. This is a matter worth looking into in respect of where research (R&D) on solar energy is now. However, solar energy technology has a "strong" presence on Wall Street.
Besides, experiments are being done in rural Africa, Asia, South America (as well urban) areas too see how efficient the technology is. It is gradually becoming popuar and its supplementary value to traditional forms of energy is not in doubt.
African should take advantge of the current research and available technology (and the sun) on solar energy (R&D) too see how far we can go in terms of supplementing our erratitic and unreliable energy supplies.
This is the little I can add.
Thanks.
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 9 years ago
Africans should also go beyond the banal acceptance of whatever our professionals or icons say and scrutinize them under scientific and logical accuracy.
This is one piece of advice the Nkrumaists could use.
And by the ... read full comment
Africans should also go beyond the banal acceptance of whatever our professionals or icons say and scrutinize them under scientific and logical accuracy.
This is one piece of advice the Nkrumaists could use.
And by the way, as a genius myself, I can assure you that there is a thin line between ingenuousness and autism. And in this instance, Prof. Allotey's statement was made when he was under a momentary spell of autistic attack. The genius must therefore be forgiven.
francis kwarteng 9 years ago
Bro SAS,
Good day!
Were you referring to Asperger's Syndrome?
I know autism is too broad a category to relate directly to creativity. I also know those with autism who mostly feature in the natural sciences, compute ... read full comment
Bro SAS,
Good day!
Were you referring to Asperger's Syndrome?
I know autism is too broad a category to relate directly to creativity. I also know those with autism who mostly feature in the natural sciences, computer science, musicology, mathematics, etc., are usually those with Asperger's Syndrome, not necessarily autism.
On the other hand, I have spoken with the man [Prof. Allotey] once (from Vermont (2004) where I was with one of the men he once mentored, one of America's leading bio-matheticians.
Prof. Allotey also mentored a number of my maths classmates from KNUST who attended his Accra Institute of Technology, both modeled after Caltech and MIT) and he sounded brilliant.
We discussed his work, among other things, the first time he and I spoke. I was therefore surprised when I read what he had to say about solar energy in his interview with Bola Ray.
I was and still surprised because his work on energy, etc., contributed to his being ranked among the top 100 influential scientists of the past century by the Italian-based Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics.
I am not too sure what must have happened during the interview. This why we must investigate your creativity-atutism proposition. Who knows?
Anyway, this is just by the way!
I hope everything is fine with you.
Thanks.
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
francis kwarteng,
We once heard there were students in some Ghanaian universities using the notes students used, 20 years previously.
Our sense is, complex theoretical physics will be quite different from applied physic ... read full comment
francis kwarteng,
We once heard there were students in some Ghanaian universities using the notes students used, 20 years previously.
Our sense is, complex theoretical physics will be quite different from applied physics/science. The latter will require a more inter-disciplinary approach in the attempt to solve a practical-human-limiting problem. So, if we do not receive the literature or purposely follow it development, we may underestimate the progress, post Nkrumah.
Then also, the Professor, if he felt he had been misquoted, had a chance to send a simple message to GNA and Bola Ray, to clarify/expound.
THE GOOD NEWS: We believe Mr. Mahama and his team are not taking that "CANT DO" advise from Professor Allotey, in this case. That is a good thing.
francis kwarteng 9 years ago
Prof. Lungu,
Well spoken. The inter-disciplinary approach is one particular argument I have been harping on in my "Dr. Kofi Dompere On Nkrumah's Scientific Thinking" as well as in a number of my previous essays.
The oth ... read full comment
Prof. Lungu,
Well spoken. The inter-disciplinary approach is one particular argument I have been harping on in my "Dr. Kofi Dompere On Nkrumah's Scientific Thinking" as well as in a number of my previous essays.
The other point is that Prof. Allotey is not behind the times as the Bola Ray interview indicates. He still travels around widely and gets ample opportunity to acquaint himself with new technologies and scientific research work already done (or ongoing) on energy, plants, etc. Besides, he always receives invitations around the world to visit a number of these places!
This was why the interview came to me as a shock. Maybe I am missing something. On the other hand the arichaic notes our professors use in our universities is real and needs critiquing.
Still I am happy to read Marcus article and Laala A. Kofi's commentary.
Thanks.
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
Thanks for the information.
If that is the case, if I were the Professor, I'd think about making a clarification -send to to GNA, Ghanaweb, Bola Ray, whatever.
I would have done that already.
Or, asked an assistan ... read full comment
Thanks for the information.
If that is the case, if I were the Professor, I'd think about making a clarification -send to to GNA, Ghanaweb, Bola Ray, whatever.
I would have done that already.
Or, asked an assistant to do that for me!
That is one reason Professors, even lowly ones, have student assistants, research assistants, etc.
Right?
BUT, there was news of an interview on a CNN program, through a Nigerian broadcasting company. The show was supposed to feature the Professor, just a week or so, ago.
And so we get to your worry!
If the interviewers were up to speed and doing their jobs as they should, they would have asked about that statement.
We are trying to see how to solve human problems today!
Let all know if you have any updates!
Thanks.
francis kwarteng 9 years ago
Prof. Lungu,
Thanks for your remarks. Points well taken though.
I will surely keep you and other readers apprised of any new developments.
Please have a great weekend.
Thanks.
Prof. Lungu,
Thanks for your remarks. Points well taken though.
I will surely keep you and other readers apprised of any new developments.
Please have a great weekend.
Thanks.
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
Marcus Ampadu,
Thanks for your piece.
The man id "dead wrong", we will say "absent-minded", on this narrow topic.
And, if Prof Allotey felt he was misquoted, he could have gone back, or sent a statement to the GNA, ... read full comment
Marcus Ampadu,
Thanks for your piece.
The man id "dead wrong", we will say "absent-minded", on this narrow topic.
And, if Prof Allotey felt he was misquoted, he could have gone back, or sent a statement to the GNA, clarifying.
Thanks.
back door director 9 years ago
Lunngu and Ampadu do not extennd your shallow analysis to allotey.
Lunngu and Ampadu do not extennd your shallow analysis to allotey.
Kweku Boateng Jnr. 9 years ago
Rooftop solar energy would help Africa today. My dream is to put 5000 panels over the University of Ghana Legon and Flagstaff House. We can make it.
Rooftop solar energy would help Africa today. My dream is to put 5000 panels over the University of Ghana Legon and Flagstaff House. We can make it.
lankwei 9 years ago
Yes and no. It is still quite expensive. Though cost appears to be down, in Cedi terms it has become a lot more expensive.
I am completely self sufficient, using solar power, for my house. It was not cheap to install it 3 ... read full comment
Yes and no. It is still quite expensive. Though cost appears to be down, in Cedi terms it has become a lot more expensive.
I am completely self sufficient, using solar power, for my house. It was not cheap to install it 3 years ago, but it would cost three times as much to set the same system up today, when quoted in cedis!
People have a tendency to talk "by heart!"
Boamah Gyamerah 9 years ago
Mr. Lankwei how much have you been spending on electricity since you installed it? How much would have been spending on electricity if your electricity were to be from ECG?
Mr. Lankwei how much have you been spending on electricity since you installed it? How much would have been spending on electricity if your electricity were to be from ECG?
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 9 years ago
1. The sun does not move across the sky; the earth does. So it is misleading for you to say that some solar panel follows the sun as it moves across the sky.
2. The support for Prof. Allotey's patently stupid statement com ... read full comment
1. The sun does not move across the sky; the earth does. So it is misleading for you to say that some solar panel follows the sun as it moves across the sky.
2. The support for Prof. Allotey's patently stupid statement comes from those who like to reel off a person's credentials in support of anything he or she says.
3. Otherwise what the good Prof. said does not make Mathematical sense: Something is too expensive and therefore it cannot be recommended? Is cost the only item to consider when making any recommendation?
4. Nonsense is nonsense no matter that it emanates from God.
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
YOUR: "... it is misleading for you to say that some solar panel follows the sun as it moves across the sky..."
OUR COMMENT: Marcus Ampadu is correct. The material point Marcus is saying is the solar panels, of a type, b ... read full comment
YOUR: "... it is misleading for you to say that some solar panel follows the sun as it moves across the sky..."
OUR COMMENT: Marcus Ampadu is correct. The material point Marcus is saying is the solar panels, of a type, by using certain devises, move in alignment with the sun.
READ: "Does the Sun move ...?
Yes, the Sun - in fact, our whole solar system - orbits around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. We are moving at an average velocity of 828,000 km/hr. But even at that high rate, it still takes us about 230 million years to make one complete orbit around the Milky Way!
www.starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question18.html
THEN: "...Why would you think that the sun does NOT move?
The sun moves in many ways. It rotates on its axis; different latitudes of the sun move at different rates, as can be observed with sunspots. The sun moves in its orbit around the barycenter of the solar system, which can be quite far removed from the sun's center.
www.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1006012001268
NEXT: "...Sunflower-Inspired Solar Panels Track Sun Without Motors ...
www.nbcnews.com/.../sunflower-inspired-solar-panels-tra...
NBCNews.com
Aug 17, 2012 - A new, sunflower-inspired solar panel stand is able to turn to face the sun ... as sunflowers, to track the sun as it moves across the sky, they say. ... to try to build bigger trackers that would work with industrial-size panels, Jiang said..."
FURTHER:
"...Solar Tracking System is a device for orienting a solar panel or concentrating a solar reflector or lens towards the sun. Concentrators, especially in solar cell applications, require a high degree of accuracy to ensure that the concentrated sunlight is directed precisely to the powered device. Precise tracking of the sun is achieved through systems with single or dual axis tracking..."
IN CLOSING: It is important to attempt to make statements as "fool" proof as possible, on Ghanaweb, and most venues. By your Item 1, it is not even clear if your know or understand that Marcus was trying to say. If you did, as Teacher of Lore, you could simply have offered an alternative explanation that made the same point, or clarified the point itself, the Marcus was attempting to make. You neglected to do any of that. So the reader is not informed reading the Item. But, that is a very important technical improvement, post-Nkrumah, perhaps the kind our Professor Allotey is as well absent-minded about.
Again, Marcus Ampadu is correct!
Dr. SAS, Attorney at Law 9 years ago
You are confused. In fact all bodies move within the universe if only because the universe is expanding. But that is as far as your logic goes.
Notionally, when Mr. Ampadu wrote of solar panels that follow the sun, he was ... read full comment
You are confused. In fact all bodies move within the universe if only because the universe is expanding. But that is as far as your logic goes.
Notionally, when Mr. Ampadu wrote of solar panels that follow the sun, he was thinking of the medieval idea that puts the earth at the center of the universe with the sun revolving around it.
Otherwise, he could'nt possibly be correct to say that a panel situated on earth follows the sun as it (the sun) moves across the sky.
Remember the rotation of the earth on its axis causes the day and night; so the solar panels cannot conceivably be following the sun by night.
Thus, the writer resorts to medieval thinking when he posits that anything on earth follows the sun as the sun moves across the sky. I dare say nothing on earth follows the sun at the speed you allege.
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
OK!
You know what Marcus Ampadu "was thinking"...
Greetings!
OK!
You know what Marcus Ampadu "was thinking"...
Greetings!
Yaw Ohemeng 9 years ago
Was this article meant to be a response to the assertions of a professional? Nothing technical is presented here; nothing is presented on on cost, reliability, storage, number of panels required to provide how many GW and you ... read full comment
Was this article meant to be a response to the assertions of a professional? Nothing technical is presented here; nothing is presented on on cost, reliability, storage, number of panels required to provide how many GW and you are purpoting to take on a professional and calling him names?
The domestic panels on roofs only complement and they do not replace conventional sources of energy. Like someone has already said, efficiency is very low but technology is developing. Hence, for a country experiencing dumsor, it is more efficient to spend the money on conventional sources before solar and wind. Once that is stabilised, we can then think of supplementing with renewables.
In the whole wide wide, renewables only provide 2% of energy generation. Ask yourself why this is so.
Yes the sun provides a very large source of energy but the technoogy is not yet matured to efficiently tap it. If the professor says this, in what way is he wrong or somehow old?
The argument that if a million people instal panels to provide 1 KW each, we have so many GW of energy is not a tenable argument. How much is it going to cost these million people? Do we have a million people who can afford this amount? If we can avail ourselves of this amount, in what efficient way should the money be spent?
The Professor is right; we should await the further development of the technology.
lankwei 9 years ago
Polycrystalline solar panels currently operate at approx. 18%efficiency. The good news is that in the past year there has been a major advance. Australian researchers have manage to build panels at 40% efficiency.
When such ... read full comment
Polycrystalline solar panels currently operate at approx. 18%efficiency. The good news is that in the past year there has been a major advance. Australian researchers have manage to build panels at 40% efficiency.
When such panels become available, one will only need half the number of panels. This should reduce the cost of installing systems.
My system is not a complement. It is autonomous, unconnected to the grid.
Yaw Ohemeng 9 years ago
When there is no sunlight, what happens?
When there is no sunlight, what happens?
lankwei 9 years ago
Unless there is total darkness for more than one day, which does not happen, sufficient reserve power in my system to tide me over. The system goes to sleep at night AND KICKS IN automatically in the morning. The charged batt ... read full comment
Unless there is total darkness for more than one day, which does not happen, sufficient reserve power in my system to tide me over. The system goes to sleep at night AND KICKS IN automatically in the morning. The charged batteries take care of the nights.
Boamah Gyamerah 9 years ago
Mr. Ohemeng do you really understand what you are talking about? What efficiency are you talking about? You have to be very carefull picking terms up to compare without a proper understanding of the theory behind it. Energy c ... read full comment
Mr. Ohemeng do you really understand what you are talking about? What efficiency are you talking about? You have to be very carefull picking terms up to compare without a proper understanding of the theory behind it. Energy cannot be created but is transfered from one form to the other. In the conventional source like nuclear, thermal and hydro, the energy is converted at least twice and in each conversion the efficiency so that the effective efficiency is the multiple of the various efficiencies to arrive at out put electrical energy. Unlike the conventional source where the energy has to be made free first, the solar has a free energy as its source hence no waste and running cost but difficult to store. The Prof`s favourite which is nuclear has the most expensive running cost in terms of waste management and storage.
Yaw Ohemeng 9 years ago
i don't know your background. But are you seeking to educate me on energy issues, more so nuclear? Enough said the better. I asked a question. Maybe you can deal with it. Why is solar so free but it caters for only 2% of elec ... read full comment
i don't know your background. But are you seeking to educate me on energy issues, more so nuclear? Enough said the better. I asked a question. Maybe you can deal with it. Why is solar so free but it caters for only 2% of electricity generation? I am using generation carefully. Because for solar you need inverters to convert into ac electricity.
Boamah Gyamerah 9 years ago
Mr.Ohemeng it is conversion of solar into electricity that might (used to be 20%)because the solar technology was niglected because of the limited availabity of sunshine in the developed. I will tell you frankly that direct u ... read full comment
Mr.Ohemeng it is conversion of solar into electricity that might (used to be 20%)because the solar technology was niglected because of the limited availabity of sunshine in the developed. I will tell you frankly that direct usage of solar energy forms more than 70% of total energy used in the rural areas of the tropical world. Let us take Ghana for example in the cocoa industry, solar energy is used to dry the cocoa beans, in the fish and meat industry preservation purposes, drying of clothes, to warm water for bathing etc. Had Nkrumah or Prof. Allotey diverted the money, time and efforts invested into the research atomic energy to that of solar, a technology that have been in used by their great grandparents years before they were both borned Ghana would have been the technological leader and leading producer and exporter of solar products.
Boamah Gyamerah 9 years ago
I delibrately refused to comment on Professor Emeritus Francis Kofi Ampenyi Allotey and Starr Chat host Bola Ray concerning our energy crisis because it wasn`t worth commenting. Professor Allotey is a renowned nuclear scienti ... read full comment
I delibrately refused to comment on Professor Emeritus Francis Kofi Ampenyi Allotey and Starr Chat host Bola Ray concerning our energy crisis because it wasn`t worth commenting. Professor Allotey is a renowned nuclear scientist and is therefore the right person to interview on the efficiency, reliability, capacity, safety, waste etc of Nuclear energy ie Nuclear technology. He is but the wrong person to interview to inform the public on the just the running cost of a nuclear plant because he is neither nuclear economist nor an experience production engineer of a nuclear energy plant. Worst of all he is not a solar scientist to be able to give objective information on the reliabity or the current stand on solar technology talk less of the running cost of a solar plant. Is Prof. Allotey wrong to say what he knows, thinks and feels to answer the questions he was asked which were out of his field? Should the bashings and insults on Prof. Allotey not rather be directed to the so called arrogant illiterate and lazy intellectuals who look down and insult people only because they can read and write in english and hold a paper qualifiction? It is high time Ghana changes its Education System to train thinking literates instead of robots and parots.
Prof Lungu 9 years ago
Boamah Gyamerah,
Sometimes, intellectuals, including scientists, have to know their own limitations. Those limitations include the possibility that a very large segment of the people listening to your "newsman-edited", but f ... read full comment
Boamah Gyamerah,
Sometimes, intellectuals, including scientists, have to know their own limitations. Those limitations include the possibility that a very large segment of the people listening to your "newsman-edited", but freely given interview may never have heard of you, and could care less about your titles. We include those "who may never have heard...could care less" in the group yo say might be "...arrogant illiterate and lazy intellectuals who look down and insult..."
All this to ask: What prevents Professor Allotey from clarifying, though other sources, on paper that he himself can produce and control 100%?
Or, is it the case that our "...arrogant illiterate and lazy intellectuals...(and)...robots and parots..." do not matter?
Thanks.
Boamah Gyamerah 9 years ago
I am not defending Prof. Allotey for in my view he was intellectually dishonest. If he were intellectually honest, he would have told the journalist the questions were out of his field. He wouldn`t because it is not in his pe ... read full comment
I am not defending Prof. Allotey for in my view he was intellectually dishonest. If he were intellectually honest, he would have told the journalist the questions were out of his field. He wouldn`t because it is not in his personal interest which he as a Ghanaian intellectua puts above that of the country. Prof Lungu, do the majority,hard working but lookdown upon Ghanaian illiterate in English farmers, fishermen/women traders, artisans, mechanics etc. who are made to believe that the arogant intellectuals are better and knows everything better matter to the arogant intellectuals in Ghana?
Dessie 9 years ago
I once commented on the prof allotey article on the cost of solar energy in Ghana..and I am still repeating that with all respect to our renowned professor..Solar energy is the most cheapest form of energy source but it is no ... read full comment
I once commented on the prof allotey article on the cost of solar energy in Ghana..and I am still repeating that with all respect to our renowned professor..Solar energy is the most cheapest form of energy source but it is not enough to supply power to local manufacturing companies..it can only be use at home. Streets and office ..by incorporation the solar Parnell into street poles on all major road and streets and allowing private partnership comes in..it will help reduce issues on our power energy consumption
For the avoidance of doubt, and for fear of being quoted out of context, I am reproducing my full comments on the subject - see below:
As far as I know Prof. Allotey, he has been a strong supporter and promoter of solar ener ...
read full comment
Laala A.Kofi, an insightful and constructive contribution, thanks. A good listener makes for a good problem solver. You are a critical thinker and an admirable peacemaker. Be well!
Ei Abra Kuma,
How are you, Peacemaker?
I have enjoyed reading all the comments here. Laala A. Kofi's lengthy commentary says a lot.
I have been wondering if what we read earlier on about Prof. Allotey (and Bola Ray) ...
read full comment
Africans should also go beyond the banal acceptance of whatever our professionals or icons say and scrutinize them under scientific and logical accuracy.
This is one piece of advice the Nkrumaists could use.
And by the ...
read full comment
Bro SAS,
Good day!
Were you referring to Asperger's Syndrome?
I know autism is too broad a category to relate directly to creativity. I also know those with autism who mostly feature in the natural sciences, compute ...
read full comment
francis kwarteng,
We once heard there were students in some Ghanaian universities using the notes students used, 20 years previously.
Our sense is, complex theoretical physics will be quite different from applied physic ...
read full comment
Prof. Lungu,
Well spoken. The inter-disciplinary approach is one particular argument I have been harping on in my "Dr. Kofi Dompere On Nkrumah's Scientific Thinking" as well as in a number of my previous essays.
The oth ...
read full comment
Thanks for the information.
If that is the case, if I were the Professor, I'd think about making a clarification -send to to GNA, Ghanaweb, Bola Ray, whatever.
I would have done that already.
Or, asked an assistan ...
read full comment
Prof. Lungu,
Thanks for your remarks. Points well taken though.
I will surely keep you and other readers apprised of any new developments.
Please have a great weekend.
Thanks.
Marcus Ampadu,
Thanks for your piece.
The man id "dead wrong", we will say "absent-minded", on this narrow topic.
And, if Prof Allotey felt he was misquoted, he could have gone back, or sent a statement to the GNA, ...
read full comment
Lunngu and Ampadu do not extennd your shallow analysis to allotey.
Rooftop solar energy would help Africa today. My dream is to put 5000 panels over the University of Ghana Legon and Flagstaff House. We can make it.
Yes and no. It is still quite expensive. Though cost appears to be down, in Cedi terms it has become a lot more expensive.
I am completely self sufficient, using solar power, for my house. It was not cheap to install it 3 ...
read full comment
Mr. Lankwei how much have you been spending on electricity since you installed it? How much would have been spending on electricity if your electricity were to be from ECG?
1. The sun does not move across the sky; the earth does. So it is misleading for you to say that some solar panel follows the sun as it moves across the sky.
2. The support for Prof. Allotey's patently stupid statement com ...
read full comment
YOUR: "... it is misleading for you to say that some solar panel follows the sun as it moves across the sky..."
OUR COMMENT: Marcus Ampadu is correct. The material point Marcus is saying is the solar panels, of a type, b ...
read full comment
You are confused. In fact all bodies move within the universe if only because the universe is expanding. But that is as far as your logic goes.
Notionally, when Mr. Ampadu wrote of solar panels that follow the sun, he was ...
read full comment
OK!
You know what Marcus Ampadu "was thinking"...
Greetings!
Was this article meant to be a response to the assertions of a professional? Nothing technical is presented here; nothing is presented on on cost, reliability, storage, number of panels required to provide how many GW and you ...
read full comment
Polycrystalline solar panels currently operate at approx. 18%efficiency. The good news is that in the past year there has been a major advance. Australian researchers have manage to build panels at 40% efficiency.
When such ...
read full comment
When there is no sunlight, what happens?
Unless there is total darkness for more than one day, which does not happen, sufficient reserve power in my system to tide me over. The system goes to sleep at night AND KICKS IN automatically in the morning. The charged batt ...
read full comment
Mr. Ohemeng do you really understand what you are talking about? What efficiency are you talking about? You have to be very carefull picking terms up to compare without a proper understanding of the theory behind it. Energy c ...
read full comment
i don't know your background. But are you seeking to educate me on energy issues, more so nuclear? Enough said the better. I asked a question. Maybe you can deal with it. Why is solar so free but it caters for only 2% of elec ...
read full comment
Mr.Ohemeng it is conversion of solar into electricity that might (used to be 20%)because the solar technology was niglected because of the limited availabity of sunshine in the developed. I will tell you frankly that direct u ...
read full comment
I delibrately refused to comment on Professor Emeritus Francis Kofi Ampenyi Allotey and Starr Chat host Bola Ray concerning our energy crisis because it wasn`t worth commenting. Professor Allotey is a renowned nuclear scienti ...
read full comment
Boamah Gyamerah,
Sometimes, intellectuals, including scientists, have to know their own limitations. Those limitations include the possibility that a very large segment of the people listening to your "newsman-edited", but f ...
read full comment
I am not defending Prof. Allotey for in my view he was intellectually dishonest. If he were intellectually honest, he would have told the journalist the questions were out of his field. He wouldn`t because it is not in his pe ...
read full comment
I once commented on the prof allotey article on the cost of solar energy in Ghana..and I am still repeating that with all respect to our renowned professor..Solar energy is the most cheapest form of energy source but it is no ...
read full comment
We agree, Dessie!!