SOLARFARM INJECTS 20MW INTO THE NATIONAL GRID

Ghana’s quest to generate 10% of its energy source from renewable energy and create a base for increasing the generation capacity appear to be on course after a private company located in the Central Region commenced injecting about 20mw into the National Grid. This came to light after Deputy Minister for Power John Jinapor paid a working visit to the 20MW Solar plant in Gomoa Onyandze in the Central Region to acquaint himself with operations of the company.The30 million dollar solar plant which was constructed to provide 20 megawatts of power to augment the current power generation deficit in the country has been completed and feeding into the national grid. The project which began  in 2012 by BXC Ghana Limited; a subsidiary of BXC Beijing China under a Power Purchase Agreement(PPA) with the Electricity Company of Ghana is on a test transmission to be commissioned next month. 

The Deputy Minister commended the company for a successful completion of the project and assured of government’s continued support and encouragement in the renewable energy sector to augment power supply from hydro and thermal plants. 

He also noted that Ghana has an advantage in the renewable energy sector because “the country’s Solar radiation is fairly well distributed” he noted. 

Mr. Jinapor urged management of the company to consider making use of the remainder of the 400-acre land acquired to construct additional solar plants or invest in a wind farm, stating the Ministry’s readiness to assist the company in thatregard.The Deputy Minister further stated

that the government through the Ministry of Power was in the process of  developing another 20mw of Solar power through competitive tender. He assured that this will eventually  result in cheaper of generating energy. MrKevin Wu, Manager Director of the company was grateful to the Ministry for the support over the period and asked for continuous support to BXC and other investors inthe renewable energy sector to help address challenges in the sector.  According to Mr. Wu, the company has installed 80,480 pieces of poly crystalline siliconpanels with 20 step-up transformers to create the output voltage of invertorsto 33 kilo volts. He added that the project was solely funded by its mother company, Beijing Xiao Cheng E Tech Stock Ltd (BXC) without any government guarantee.