The Director of Renewable Energy at the Energy Ministry, Mr. Wisdom Tordogbo says that the government and the Ministry of Energy is committed to increase the penetration of renewable energy in the energy mix.
He said that this action is in line with the country’s commitment to private agreement on climate change as well sustainable development goals.
Addressing the gathering at the commissioning of the Special Ice factory one megawatt solar power project, Mr Tordogbo revealed that, the Energy Ministry has developed a renewable energy masterplan which will have the Energy Commission overseeing its monitoring.
“We have developed a renewable energy masterplan which clearly provides the capacity and investment required on year by year basis. What it means is that, if we have all these company’s trying to invest or install in solar PV on their building, by virtue of the plan that is in place, you will only have to build it within the capacity allowed within the year.
“And this the energy commission has been tasked to make sure that they monitor and enforce this requirement, so any investment like this will definitely require obtaining the license from energy commission.”
He also said that despite efforts to promote renewable energy, there are challenges they have to deal with notable among them being high electricity cost.
“In our efforts to promote renewable energy, we have to deal with a number of challenges. Few among these challenges had to do with high cost of electricity and you will agree with me that electricity prices today are quite high.
“But even though it is high, it will interest you to know that the revenue that is obtained is inadequate to meet the generation and operational cost of power.”
He also added that the Energy Ministry was facing serious financial challenges with regards to their inability to sell power because of most company’s switching away from ECG’s power.
He further went on to say that, they have placed a memoratorium on new Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) on both thermal and renewable energy schemes because of the excess generation they have now.
Mr. Tordogbo said that, government has also been undertaking a few initiatives as far as integrating renewable energy is concerned and reiterated that support towards solar energy.
“We support solar implementation because it creates jobs and provide training and skill acquisition.”
He commended Special Ice for their boldness and innovation in implementing such a laudable investment.
The Special Ice factory last week commissioned a 1megawatts solar power project, the first of its kind for a manufacturing company in the country.
It was revealed that the solar power project came about as a result of high cost of production and operations which has mostly got to do with electricity.
The project which will be providing solar power for the factory after testing, is said to be making about 50% saving on the national grid.
The project was spearheaded and installed by SunPower Innovations.
