Mining companies urged to support energy transition efforts
The Deputy Minister of Energy, Herbert Krapa, says there is the need for mining firms to transition to the production and utilisation of clean energy in their processes.
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Mr Krapa said that at the Mining and Energy Summit and Exhibition which was held on the theme; “Harnessing Mining and Energy Potential for Sustainable National Development”.
“We must ensure that we are contributing our quota to reducing global green-house gas emissions and even more importantly, we must achieve de carbonisation, energy access, energy efficiency for the mining industry,” he stated.
The deputy minister also called on industry players to collaborate with the government to help mitigate any emissions that came out from the production of energy.
Leveraging natural resources
The deputy minister said while it was important to leverage the country’s natural resources for development, this must be done without harming the environment.
He said the country must focus on how it could power the mining industry sustainably while at the same time meet its global obligations with regards to clean energy.
He noted that it was for this reason that the government was expanding the national energy portfolio to include more renewables.
He said the government was committed to meeting its 10 per cent renewables target by 2030.
“There is a critical problem of carbon emissions confronting us and critical industries such as mining must be transitioned to cleaner energy sources,” he stated.
Energy Transition Framework
Mr Krapa also mentioned that the government had developed a National Energy Transition Framework to de carbonise the energy sector.
He said the long term net zero framework from 2022-2070, balanced a system that helped with new initiatives to increase renewable energy penetration, convert thermal plants to natural gas and integrate nuclear power into the energy system.
He said the framework provided the vision and guidance for the transition process and in doing so, the government considered all the policies and programmes for national determined contributions.
“We also consulted Ghanaians all over the country and considered all their views.
We consulted key stakeholder groups including organised and non-organised labour and international partners.
“The framework guarantees the best policies for a diversified energy mix which is cost effective and help us meet our electricity demand of 380,000 megawatts with an installed capacity of 83 kilowatts,” he pointed out.
He said the diversified energy mix would include 21 megawatts of renewable energy, providing the country the opportunity to commercialise renewable energy.
He noted that electricity generation from this renewable energy mix should push the cost to below 4.5 cent per kilowatt hour.
Net Metering Scheme
The deputy minister said government had also introduced a Net Metering Scheme to allow electricity consumers to supplement their purchase of electricity with renewable energy connected to the national grid.
He said the Public Utility Regulation Commission (PURC) and the Energy Commission were working together for guidelines for implementation of this policy.