Power Minister urges public Universities on the use of biomass  for energy

Power Minister Dr Kwabena Donkor is advocating the use of biomass for energy production at public Universities in the country.

“One of the things I really look forward to seeing is using biomass, especially [at] our public universities,” Dr Donkor said at a press briefing Monday February 2, 2015.

According to him, “we could light up all the streets in [the University of Ghana] Legon, and provide all the gas for cooking using human waste.”

“Some of the private universities have already embarked on this – Valley View University and, I hear Central University. So where we have the critical population mass, we’ll be encouraging this,” he said.

Ghana is currently shedding between 440 and 650 Megawatts of power during off-peak and peak hours respectively, as against planned shedding of 250 and 350 Megawatts for the same periods.

Dr Donkor said the power deficit could be put down to “non-availability of some generating units through faults, mandatory inspection and routine maintenance, poor hydrology, fuel supply challenges,” as well as the increase in demand over the decades.

He said renewable energy sources could help the situation a bit, adding that solar energy will be used as a tool for demand-side management. 

“We intend rolling out a programme that will see individuals and corporate bodies installing solar panels on their rooftops to provide at least basic lighting and heating so that the demand on the national grid for lighting will reduce.”

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