west africa

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.

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).

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.

The government of Sierra Leone has officially launched a 6MW solar project in the capital Freetown after securing financial backing from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD).

Solar in West Africa may have been slow to kick off, but the last year has seen notable deployment across the region. Mahama Kappiah, executive director of the West Africa's Regional Centre for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency discusses what potential solar has to revolutionise the energy sector in a region that suffers from severe power deficits.