Former Chair of the Energy Committee of Parliament, Samuel Atta Akyea clashed with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Edward Bawa over the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) plan to introduce 2,000 megawatts of solar power into Ghana’s energy mix.
According to the NPP Manifesto, this is one of the surest ways to cut Ghana’s dependency on hydro and thermal energy sources towards cleaner and cheaper sources.
On Wednesday, the Abuakwa South MP explained on JoyNews’ PM Express that the NPP will partner private sector to introduce solar into Ghana’s energy mix.
“Our manifesto is very clear that one of the main pillars of trying to ensure that we have sufficient energy is to go solar. So if we can do a rollout of solar in a neighbourhood of 2,000 megawatts, we will be able to keep the lights on,” he said.
He added “If you pay regard to our financial space, we should never discount what the private sector would do to bring it about. Because of our current challenges of how we are over-stressed in terms of our expenditure and debts, is to give the private sector the space to intervene in the private space and they would be able to help us with it.”
According to him, the government’s role in the transaction is to create investment space and let the private sector know how they would get their investment back.
But Member of the Energy Committee of Parliament and NDC Manifesto Spokesperson on Energy, Edward Bawa has described the plan as lacking thought.
He argued that the NPP has no idea what it will take to make Ghana's energy self-sufficient.
“One of the most unsensible things I have ever seen in a manifesto is the fact that the NPP captured that they would add 2,000 megawatts of solar – a variable source to our system. Technically, it doesn’t make sense.
“First and foremost, there is this intermittent nature of renewable energy makes it such a way that any time you put up a renewable energy, you must have a corresponding conventional plant to take charge any time they are not able to produce energy.”
He added that what threatens the inability to put the lights on is the issue of finance.
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