General News of Thursday, 21 February 2019
Source: dailyguidenetwork.com
2019-02-21
Jubilee House
President Nana Akufo-Addo has revealed that the Jubilee House will be fully solar powered by August this year.
The initiative, expected to be replicated across most public institutions under the Solar Rooftop programme, formed part of governments’ target of distributing 200 megawatts of solar power to residential and non-residential buildings by 2030.
This is in fulfilment of the Government’s target of achieving a 10 per cent renewable ingredient in the energy mix of the country which currently stands at 1 per cent.
President Akufo Addo explained that the initiative was necessary as government was working at reducing expenditure on utilities and liabilities to the Electricity Company of Ghana.
On a national basis, he justified the need for cheaper renewable energy as part of electricity generation mix by saying that Ghana could not achieve its universal access target despite excess generation of electricity.
That, he attributed to the remoteness of most Ghanaian communities that could not be reached through the national grid.
“There are currently 200 islands and 2000 lakeside communities that require mini-grids from renewable energy to meet their energy needs” he said.
He announced that gas production had tripled during the year from 100 to 300 million cubic feet per day.
On fighting corruption in the oil industry, he was optimistic the establishment of a National Register of Contracts where all petroleum agreements signed by the Government are published would promote contract transparency.
“This provides a platform for citizens to scrutinize the oil contracts signed by government, and accords with the international call for contract transparency” he said.
He also indicated that the recently passed General Petroleum Regulations, which required disclosure of beneficial ownership information of companies operating in the oil and gas industry, would ensure people did not hide behind oil blocks at the expense of citizens.
