Kete Krachi Timber Recovery installs solar panels - Its provides 45% of power needs
Kete Krachi Timber Recovery (KKTR), operator of the Lake Volta Timber Salvage Concession, has further improved the environmental friendliness of its activities by installing a solar panel at its Sedorm-Yiti sawmill.
KKTR salvages timber from Lake Volta which contains an estimated 14 million cubic metres of recoverable hardwood submerged in 1964 as a result of the construction of the Akosombo Dam.
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A statement issued in Accra said the solar installation was expected to provide energy for up to 45 per cent of the total electricity requirement of KKTR from sunshine.
Deployment
It said KKTR directly employed over 150 people, and at full production, “capacity will be the largest sustainable hardwood timber operation in Africa, providing over 1,000 jobs in rural areas and producing sawn timber and charcoal with minimal environmental impact”.
“With Ghana’s forest cover reduced by 90 per cent since 1900, salvaging timber from Lake Volta will enable Ghana to improve timber exports while undertaking reforestation to regenerate the country’s remaining living forests,” it said.
CEO
The Chief Executive Officer of KKTR, Mr Elkin Pianim, remarked “Sustainability is at the heart of everything KKTR does, so although One district, One factory (IDIF) companyenabled KKTR to dispense with our costly and polluting diesel generators by connecting us to the VRA (national) grid as part of their ongoing programme of support for rural industries, we decided to further clean our power input by augmenting our electricity with REDAVIA's onsite solar power.
We now expect to get up to 45 per cent of our total electricity needs from Ghana's abundant sunshine, while reducing our energy costs, and REDAVIA can expand our solar power supply as our energy needs grow with our business."
Reduction
The CEO and Founder of REDAVIA, Erwin Spolders, said “Solar power reduces costs, generating savings that can be reinvested into the business, while also reducing the carbon footprint of the business. It’s a win-win scenario.”
“KKTR, a wholly owned Ghanaian company was inaugurated as a IDIF by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in November 2018 at Sedorm Yiti in the Asuogyaman District of the Eastern Region,” it said.
