The stalled Ada Foah Energy Project, is set to be revived as the TC’s Energy USA and its partners have signed an agreement to finance it.
The three-partner companies which came together to make this decision are TC’s Energy USA, Power China Huadong Engineering Corporation Ltd and Seabased of Sweden.
The local counterpart of the project TC’s Energy Ghana, have been collaborating and working with Seabased Industry AB to create Africa’s first wave power plant at Ada Foah since 2015 when the onshore grid-connected switchgear was installed and the first phase of the wave energy converters was deployed and connected.
The project which will employ an environmentally friendly technology known as the “SeaBased” Wave Energy Converters (WEC), seeks to establish a wave energy park in the Gulf of Guinea in Ghana, about 17 kilometres off the coast of Ada to generate 1,000 megawatts of power from sea waves.
Officials say the project will offer energy at a lower cost of between 3 and 4 cents compared with 10 or more cents available from hydro and thermal. They said in addition,
“There is enormous environmental benefit since the project is renewable.”
The acquisition of the project land and its implementation has already seen over US$10 million invested by sponsors.
At the signing ceremony, the CEO of TC’s Energy, Mr. Anthony Opoku throwing more light on the project, noted that, purchasing of resources to produce electricity will not be needed if government implements this project which will also be of great benefit to government as well.
“It is based on the wave heights. So, before we even place this unit, we do some studies to see the average wave heights, and currently, the average wave heights is 2.5 (metres), but sometimes it can go as high as 12 meters, and sometimes the waves can get crazy, and even go as high as 20 metres. So, for us, the more wave the more money and the more electricity for the country.
The generation part is all underneath the sea so you won’t see anything. The only thing you will see when we go to the other side is the switch gear where the power comes directly into the grid.”
With its tagline “Pioneering Wave Energy in Africa”, the project will involve the installation of generator units (WECs) and marine substations offshore; installation of an onshore sub-station to connect to the national grid; and the laying of cables to link the offshore generating units and the onshore sub-station located about 100m from the shore.
In meeting the highest international requirements for the project, TC’s Energy has also applied to the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) for Marine Energy Converters Certification.
Director General of the GSA, Professor Alex Dodoo, said the process assures the country of safety and quality generation of power.
“The Standard Authority was approached by TC’s wave Energy to ensure that, the energy they want to generate and the entire processes are certified in accordance with international best practices. So, the Standards Authority met several times and considered the scheme we were going to use for the marine energy converter certification. We are in this country going to generate electricity from sea waves. Marine energy converter exists; however, this is going to be the biggest in Africa and most likely the biggest in the world. We at the Standards Authority are sure that that it is going to be efficient from what we have seen.”
The professional and technical services of the project will be provided by the GSA.
