The Bui Power Authority (BPA) says it has expanded its switchyard at the Bui Generation Station (GS) to accommodate 250MW of solar-generated power.

“BPA will be the first hybrid generation plant by the end of 2018, combining hydro and solar power generation,” its Chief Executive Officer Mr Fred Oware, told media conference in Accra.

He confirmed that the Authority has appropriately positioned itself as the renewable energy leader to power green energy for the country, adding that the Authority had expanded its focus to renewable energy, which is in line with the Energy Ministry’s vision of increasing the renewable to about 10 per cent of Ghana’s energy mix.

He explained that this meant they should be looking at adding at least 500 megawatt (MW) of renewable energy to the country’s energy generation.

“The Authority intends to train more of its engineers and other staff in pursuing and accomplishing this very important task of meeting the Ministry of Energy’s target for renewable energy generation,” he added.

He said to further this renewable vision; BPA was prospecting six possible sites for solar generation in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions.

In view of this, the BPA was commencing a 30 kilovolts (kV) generation from the Tsatsadu Falls in the Volta Region and was working with GS-WIND and the University of Ghana on wind energy generation.

Mr Oware said: “Our mandate to provide renewable energy for the National Interconnected Transmission System (NITS) has spurred us on to developing a firm foundation to meet the Government’s objective of achieving at least 10 per cent of the national electricity load being of Photovoltaics (PV) energy by 2020.

“We have finished the testing and commissioning of 250MW switchyard facilities purposely built to evacuate solar power”.

He said adequate lands had been demarcated for solar parks to support the programme; stating that compensation to farmers had been settled, whilst permitting and licensing procedures were being followed.

“We are certain that construction works will start in the first quarter of next year in modules of 50MW pv solar park per project,” Mr Oware said.

He said additionally, some appropriate sites in the Northern, Upper East and Upper West Regions had been acquired to ensure that solar parks were not concentrated at one location.

He said over a five year period, there would be significant increase of pv energy in the power mix for the country.

With regards to the Bui Hydro-Generating Station, Mr Oware said it had three generating units with each having a capacity to generate 133MW of power and a mini-plant of 4MW, totalling 400MW.

He said the commissioning of the 400MW Bui Generating Station in December 2013, thus added about 20 per cent of installed hydro capacity to Ghana’s energy production.

He said Bui Generating Station had, since its inauguration, been generating averagely 220MW of power daily.

Mr Oware said BPA was currently in contractual talks with Sinohydro to ensure that for the next five to 10 years, they would assist BPA to carry out its major maintenance and procure spare parts for the various components of the Bui Generating Station.

A 100-million Euro bilateral investment and reform partnership agreement to promote private investment in renewable energy and vocational training in Ghana have been signed between Ghana and Germany.

The agreement which forms part of Germany’s G-20 Compact with Africa for sustainable economic development is also geared towards improving conditions for sustainable private sector investment, investment in infrastructure, economic participation and employment in the country.

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, and Germany’s Deputy Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, Friedrich Kitschelt, signed the agreement for their respective countries.

Speaking at a media conference after the signing of the agreement President Nana Addo Danqua Akufo-Addo described the relations between the two countries as excellent and that Ghana was the third biggest trading partner of Germany in sub-Saharan Africa.

He said, there were “many important features of commonality between what we are trying to do here and what is taking place in Germany”, adding that Germany had always been distinguished by some key elements that were worthy of emulation by Ghana.

“Small and medium-scale enterprises are the overwhelming number of enterprises in our own economy and how to scale them up and strengthen them is the major challenge of policy for us in Ghana. We believe that this is an area where we can profit very strongly from the German experience and model,” he said.

Another area where Germany had taken the lead in the world, President Akufo-Addo said, was the training of its workforce.

He alluded to the so-called dual system that allowed people to work and study in Germany, saying that initiative had made the German workforce one of the most efficient in Europe and the world.

That, according to him, showed in the continued performance and resilience of the German economy.

“We have significant hydro resources, as we all know, and we believe that going down the road, a mixture of hydro and renewable energy represents the best mix for the energy generation of the future. We are hoping again that this is an area where we can have a meaningful intercourse with Germany,” he stated.

“Ghana beyond aid is one of the finest and greatest resonance of the leadership of Germany and it provides another important basis for this continuing and fruitful dialogue between our two countries,” President Akufo-Addo added.

President Steinmeier said relations between Germany and Ghana had a long-standing tradition and that in the last years it had been given additional impetus and grown immensely.

That, he said, was evidenced by the visible proof which he and his delegation had when they interacted with business representatives from Ghana, adding that the interest in each other was incredibly great and a matter of curiosity for various reasons.

“As far as German businesses and industry are concerned, I can say that, compared to other African countries, the infrastructure and the investment condition and climate are much better here and German businesses and industry are happy to invest where there is democracy like Ghana where you have a tradition of stability,” President Steinmeier said.

He said Ghana had shown the world in the last 12 months that it was possible to move away from divisive tendencies through determined actions and that the data available to Germany on Ghana had improved, stressing that “we are more optimistic now than we were a year or two ago”.

President Steinmeier said interest on the part of Ghana in Germany’s investment was just as great because it was not only about investing in companies and plants but also about German companies bringing Germany’s educational model and experience to Ghana.

He was full of praise for the government’s focus on education to spearhead efforts to build a Ghana beyond aid and pledged the commitment of Germany to support and co-operate with Ghana to make that vision possible and attainable.

“This is very important and, as important as it is, we are more than happy to be of assistance. We will support you in that endeavour and co-operate with you in that regard. The joint declaration of intent on the design of a partnership to promote private investment and sustainable economic development is a sign of us respecting fully what Ghana has been doing in the recent past,” he added.

The Institute of Energy Security (IES) is expecting no significant changes in the prices of fuel at the pumps during the Christmas period.

A statement signed by IES Principal Research Analyst Richmond Rockson on said the reasons is “due to the fairly stable price of both Crude oil and refined products on the global oil market, coupled with the marginal dip of the Cedi’s value against the U.S. Dollar”.

However IES said it expects a “fall slightly due to the reduction of the Price Stabilization and Recovery Levy, and should Oil Marketing Companies seek to reward fuel consumers during the yuletide”.

According to IES, “the hopes of consumers were dashed, as the intervention by government and the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) by reducing the Price Stabilization and Recovery Levy on the local fuel Price Build-up yielded no result at the pump, with consumers paying same amount for a litre of fuel at the pump within the two-week period”.

“Although price per litre remains relatively high compared to a year ago, the current prices have been same for three consecutive Pricing-windows with average Gasoline price per litre going for Ghs4.46, while Gasoil is sold at Ghs4.45 per litre on national average terms,” the release added.

IES-Marketscan shows Zen Petroleum continues to sell the cheapest Gasoline and Gasoil on the local market at Ghs4.391 and Ghs4.371 per litre respectively, followed by Cash Oil and Lucky Oil.

IEs indicated that oil producing countries continue to rake in more revenue as Brent crude oil is sold at an average of $63.83 per barrel, from a previous average price of $62.94 per barrel representing a change of 1.41 percent.

During the past two weeks, Brent crude spot price surged above $65 per barrel for the first time since June 2015 as a result of the shutdown of the Forties North Sea pipeline. Figures from Standard and Poor’s Global Platts benchmark for oil commodities suggests Gasoline prices decreased marginally from $604.65 per metric tonne to $600.86 per metric tonne (-0.63%), while Gasoil rose slightly from $560.73 per metric tonne to close at $560.86 per metric tonne (0.02%) within the period.

IES Economic Desk’s monitoring of the Foreign Exchange market found that the local currency lost some value against the US Dollar, trading at an average rate of Ghs4.51 from a previous average value of Ghs4.48 for the period under review.

As at the morning of December 12, 2017; total Gasoline and Gasoil imported within the period under review was 172,153 metric tonnes, with Gasoil import being 134,603 metric tonnes, whilst 37,550 metric tonnes of Gasoline was discharged into terminals.