The International Energy Agency (IEA) October report has said that, solar has become the new king of electricity as renewables is growing rapidly with solar at the centre of this new constellation of electricity generation technologies.
According to the IEA October report, the agency noted that, renewables will meet 80% of the growth in global electricity demand in 2030. It said that, hydropower remains the largest renewable source of electricity, but solar is the main driver of growth as it sets new records for deployment each year after 2022, followed by onshore and offshore wind.
It said, the advance of renewable sources of generation, and of solar in particular, as well as the contribution of nuclear power, is much stronger in the strong data sheet and the Net Zero Emmission 2050.
The report attributed supportive policies and maturing technologies, as what is enabling very cheap access to capital in leading markets. With sharp cost reductions over the past decade, solar PV is consistently cheaper than new coal or gasfired power plants in most countries, and solar projects now offer some of the lowest cost electricity ever seen.
Commenting in the report, the Executive Director of the IEA, Dr. Faith Birol, said that he sees solar becoming the new king of the world’s electricity markets and urged that if governments and investors step up their clean energy efforts, the growth of both solar and wind would be even more spectacular and hugely encouraging for overcoming the world’s climate challenge.
Renewable energy is gradually gaining grounds globally and has become a go-to source of energy for many countries. It is considered to be environmentally friendly mainly due to the fact that it’s towing in line with the United Nations Zero Net Emission by 2030-2050 whose aim is to stabilize global temperatures to help with climate change.
Moving away from the fossil fuels realm, renewable energy is also seen to be a clean source of energy because of its numerous benefits to the environment. Many countries are adopting its use and is currently one of the most used energies in the world.
In view of the global trends, the Government of Ghana has also identified renewable energy as one of the options that could contribute to the overall energy supply mix and minimise the adverse effects of energy production on the environment.
The government through the energy commission have reported that, renewable energy programmes and projects implemented in recent years have demonstrated that renewable energy interventions have enormous potential to reduce poverty and improve the socio-economic development of the country, particularly, in rural communities.
Joining the world to move into the era of solar generated energy and to address the attendant effects of the short-term planning of the overall development of the renewable energy sector, the Energy Commission of Ghana developed the Renewable Energy Master Plan (REMP), with the goal to provide investment-focussed framework for the promotion and development of the country’s rich renewable energy resources for sustainable economic growth, contribute to improved social life and reduce adverse climate change effects.
The REMP aims to achieve by 2030 an increase in the proportion of renewable energy in the national energy generation mix from 42.5 MW to 1363.63 MW, with grid-connected systems totalling 1094.63 MW). It also seeks to reduce the dependence on biomass as the main fuel for thermal energy applications and also to provide renewable energy-based decentralised electrification options in 1,000 off-grid communities. The REMP is also to promote local content and local participation in the renewable energy industry
