Ghana will soon update its feed-in tariff (FiT) programme for solar to include the possibility of having contracts last for 20 years, according to Wisdom Ahiataku-Togobo, director of renewables and alternative energy at the Ministry of Power Ghana.
Ghana could be a frontrunner for clean energy integration and energy exports across the West African power pool, according to a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report.
Significant increases of utility tariffs in Nigeria and Ghana are improving the business case for solar by providing money to utilities and bringing competition to the power market, according to energy developers.
A glut of solar-based products failing across Nigeria has been caused by a lack of clarity around ownership and alleged cases of corruption, according to member of the World Energy Council (WEC).
Difficulties in financing Indian solar projects with extremely low tariffs and the wobbling of major solar player SunEdison will not impact the long-term prospects of India’s PV market, according to two senior banking and finance representatives.
Chinese integrated PV manufacturers Renesola and Jinko Solar have announced module supply deals of 81.5MW and 49MW respectively for projects in their domestic territory.
Clean energy corridors of up to 2GW capacity are being planned for the West African region under plans put forward by the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (ECREEE).
Midway across southern Ghana, near the historic port fishing town of Winneba, lies East and West Africa’s largest solar PV plant. Ghana suffers a severe energy deficit with only around 70% of the population having access to electricity, so it was welcome news that the project was connected to the grid at the end of last week. PV Tech visited the new project, built by China-based power firm BXC Ghana, just ahead of the Solar and Off-grid Renewables West Africa 2016 conference in Accra, Ghana.
