Renewable Energy Act 2011
The Renewable Energy Act states that renewables should cover 10% of electricity demand by 2020. The act provides for the legal and regulatory framework required to promote the supply of energy from renewable sources and has the full support of all political parties. The act was adopted in order to increase Ghana’s renewable energy capacity and deals with the following: creating a conducive investment climate, enhancing public education, developing indigenous technology capacity, and regulating the production and supply of wood fuel and biofuel.
The act also sets out the regulatory framework, as well as legal and fiscal incentives to promote the use of renewable energy. It tasks renewable energy agencies with performing a detailed assessment of resources with power-generation potential, and provides support for research into, and the development and demonstration of economically viable renewable energy technology options for grid-connected, mini-grid and off-grid applications.
The act also deals with the feed-in-tariff (FIT) scheme, which includes a renewable energy purchase obligation, the FIT rates and connections to the transmission and distribution systems. The tariffs below have been increased by over 90% in the last three years in an effort to enable utilities to recover their costs without government subsidies.
Electricity from renewable energy technologies |
FIT effective from 1 October 2014 (Gp/kWh) |
Maximum capacity (MW) |
Wind with grid stability systems |
55.74 |
300 MW |
Wind without grid stability systems |
51.43 |
Solar PV with grid stability systems |
64.41 |
150 MW |
Solar PV without grid stability systems |
58.36 |
Hydro ≤ 10 MW |
53.62 |
No limit |
Hydro ≥ 10 MW and ≤ 100 MW |
53.89 |
No limit |
Biomass |
56.01 |
No limit |
Biomass (enhanced technology) |
59.04 |
No limit |
Biomass (plantation as feed stock) |
63.29 |
No limit |
Source: Climate Investment Funds, 2015