The Ghana Chamber of Mines (GCM) has inaugurated an 80kwp grid-tied solar photovoltaic system, with a call on government to incentivise renewable energy.
The ultra-modern PV system forms part of efforts by the chamber to reduce reliance on the national grid and to lessen its carbon footprints in line with the Sustainable Development Goal 7.
It was constructed by Stella Futura, a local firm, at an amount of US$122,316.35 and was designed to meet the chamber’s electricity requirements.
Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines Sulemanu Koney advocated incentives to encourage adoption of cleaner energy sources, adding that prevailing statutory payments were disincentives.
“I think so, that’s what we believe in because we want to see a lot more diffusion of renewable energy within the energy mix of the country. Policy should speak to the fiscals, especially in this particular case; we need to see more of the incentives being implemented. We think that it will help our country if we consider waiving the taxes and levies at the service provision end.
“You have to get a service provider for you to do this; and once it’s a service provision, you have all of these taxes imposed at the end of the day, so the bid you get will have these taxes and levies, and I think that it should be across the board. We are not asking for it for ourselves – we have done it! We have paid the taxes, but we believe that to get a deeper and expansive diffusion of renewable energy within the energy mix, I think that we should have that insensitive to ensure that those who decide to take that move of faith, moving out of the grid and going to renewable energy, should ultimately get the benefit as well as the net metering,” he added.
First Vice President of the Chamber George Nutor explained that the negative impact of climate change necessitated the need to move to cleaner and sustainable energy.
“The need for us to move to clean energy has never been more apparent than in these times of climate change effects. The effects of extreme weather conditions amid unexpected rain patterns have shown the need for us to pay critical attention to issues of clean energy and sustainability, especially for those of us in the mining industry.
According to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, goal 7 is about ensuring access to clean and affordable energy, which is key to the development of business, communications, education, healthcare, agriculture and transportation. To this end, lack of access to energy hinders economic and human development,” he said.
Mr. Nutor revealed that rising commodity, energy and shipping costs have increased the cost of producing and transporting solar photovoltaic modules, wind turbines and biofuels worldwide, thereby adding uncertainty to a development trajectory that is already far below the targets of the SDGs.
