Description

Ghana placed 26th out of the 55 countries surveyed by Climatescope 2014, scoring 1.15. It was strongest on Clean Energy Value Chain Parameter III, and Greenhouse Gas Management Activities, Parameter IV, taking 19th and 14th places, respectively. In contrast, it ranked fourth from bottom for Clean Energy Investment Parameter II, reflecting its meager track record in securing investment.

The country has almost no on-grid clean power generating capacity other than large hydro, which comprises more than half of national installed capacity. The rest is made up of fossil fuel plants, apart from one small utility-scale PV project. This mix may change as a feed-in tariff (FiT) took effect in Q3 2013, though the several renewable energy projects under development face high local currency risk.

The FiT was one of four main components of the Renewable Energy Act of 2011. Other aspects are at varying degrees of implementation, including a Renewable Energy Fund, a biofuel blending mandate and net metering guidelines. Following introduction of the act, the government announced it was targeting 500MW of renewable energy capacity – roughly 10% of the energy mix – by 2020.