THIS WEEK, Blue Energy, a British company, announced that it will build Africa’s largest solar power plant in Ghana. By the time it is completed in 2015, the 155-megawatt facility will be the fourth-largest power plant in the world and is expected to supply 20 per cent of the Ghanaian government’s target of generating 10 per cent of electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
Apart from being the second-largest producer and exporter of cocoa in the world, Ghana is a significant producer of oil and, in March, Tullow Oil of London stated that an oilfield it found off the coast was a major find. Still, Ghana has made it easy for this US$400-million investment in solar energy to go ahead. The Nzema project will be situated on 183-hectares (about 403 acres) of land in western Ghana. The Ghanaian government has given the investor a100-year lease, as well as planning and connection permission to the 161kV West African Power Pool transmission line, which links Ghana to the Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin and Nigeria.
Int’l investors responded swiftly
The CEO of Blue Energy, Chris Dean, speaking to the