By
Lydia Kukua Asamoah, GNA
Accra, Jan. 28, GNA –
Ghana and Germany have launched a 400 KW hybrid waste-to-energy (w2e) power
plant to treat urban solid waste in the country.
The kick-off and
groundbreaking ceremony, held on Tuesday in Accra, thus, paved the way to the
beginning of the construction of the Plant to be situated in Atwima Nwabiagya
in the Ashanti Region.
The pilot project is
being embarked upon against the background of Ghana’s quest to find long term
solution to the menace of solid waste by treating and generating power from the
treated waste.
Additionally, the
project is expected to help close the carbon cycle by developing the value
chain of the process with the production and utilization of compost, which
would be sold to farmers to boost agriculture and cut down on mineral
fertilizer whilst improving the soil structure.
Speaking at the
ceremony in Accra, Professor Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, Minister of Environment,
Science, Technology and Innovation, said the Plant was expected to be built and
operated within four years as a pilot, after which 10 or more are expected to
be built within the next 10 to 20 years in different regions.
Under the project,
the Minister explained, the “sun and other biodegradable materials would be
used to create and generate energy and biogas while plastics and other things
would go through paralysis to also produce energy.
“We are involving
all the universities that are engaged in energy production and the research
institutions as well, who are expected to help lay the foundation that would
help Ghana build its own energy systems in a few years’ time”, he said.
“It is an
environmental and sanitation project, which would help us clean our environment
and generate energy that would compromise solar and would involve various
sector Ministries, including the Local Government, Agriculture, Education,
Energy and Sanitation”.
The Minister
described the project as a reflection of Ghana-German cooperation, which was
also tightening relationship between the two countries.
He said the
universities had a critical role to play to ensure that Ghana was able to turn
its raw materials that were becoming a menace into a better source of
alternative.
Mr Christoph
Retzlaff, the German Ambassador said the project was being funded by the German
government with an amount of six million Euros and would help create 50 new
jobs in the Ashanti Region.
“We intend to
partner our Ghanaian counterparts to set up
10 more hybrid waste to energy plants in Ghana and these would create
about 1,000 new jobs in and be a sustainable solution for the waste disposable
problems in the country” he said..
“It would save a lot
of emissions and about 800,000 tonnes of harmful emissions could be save each
year”.
The project would
also enhance human resource capacity building, high level of research and
development.
The German
Government through the Federal Ministry of Education and Research of Germany
(BMBF) being represented by the Project Management Agency Julich, was
collaborating with other universities, in both Ghana and Germany, to undertake
the project that has the West African Science Centre on Climate Change and
Advanced Land Use (WASCAL), based in Ghana, as the main implementer.
The project is also
expected to create opportunity for German Small Medium Enterprises to take
advantage and extend their products and services in the area of waste to energy
in Ghana.
It would contribute
to Ghana’s climate change mitigation strategy as well as to the inclusion of
renewable energy.
GNA