The Energy Center (TEC), KNUST, has commenced this year’s Flagbearers on Energy (FoE 2012) special seminar series with presentations from three registered presidential candidates without representatives in parliament.

The theme for the FoE 2012 special seminar series is “Energy for Prosperity” and the three presidential candidates who spoke on the first day are Mr Akwasi Addae, Dr Henry Lartey’s Running Mate and Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah. They argued that for Ghana to achieve a full middle income economy, we would need to advance energy sector development through extensive renewable energy research and high level of management of our energy resources including the discovered oil and gas in the jubilee fields.

Mr. Akwasi Addae (popularly known as Odike) of the United Front Party, delivering the first presentation of the day mentioned that energy is the pivot around which Ghana can develop its resources and institutions to become an industrialized country. When elected as president of Ghana on December 7, he said, he will lead the nation to develop its renewable energy resources like solar, small hydro and wind to grow Ghana’s energy sector: “I will ensure development of decentralized micro and mini grid systems from renewable energy resources”. Commenting on frequent shortages of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and the load shedding exercise in Ghana, he said that his party has business models for energy sector development including LPG and that it is time that Ghanaians voted an entrepreneur as president to help grow the economy into a full middle income status.

The second presentation was done on behalf of Dr Henry Herbert Lartey, Flagbearer of Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), by his running mate, Mr John Amekah.  The GCPP presidential candidate mentioned that when elected president of Ghana, he will build Renewable Energy Universities and establish solar academies in the academic institutions. This will ensure that Ghanaian universities become the center for renewable energy research and development in Africa which will attract students and interest groups all over the world into the country thereby creating employment in the energy sector. Dr Lartey said, “a GCPP government will ensure that through its energy sector development policies, new buildings will incorporate solar panels into their roofing systems to generate electricity for their energy needs”. He stressed that domestication of the sun would be given top priority attention and he stated that the GCPP party has calculated plans to develop Ghana’s renewable energy resources so that we achieve 6000 MW of electricity supply by 2020. This will help develop Ghana’s automobile industry by producing electronic cars which is one of the objectives of the GCPP party if voted into power. Concluding his presentation, he emphasized that the GCPP party has plans to domesticate Ghana’s energy supply with keen interest in solar energy and that Accra will be converted to a solar city so that it becomes the first solar city in Africa. 

The only independent presidential candidate for the 2012 election, Mr. Jacob Osei Yeboah, was the third to make his presentation.  Mr Yeboah, an electrical engineering graduate of KNUST, argued that Ghana as a country can exploit and develop biogas from waste. The end products (after conversion of waste into biogas) can also be developed into fertilizer that can be used for the agricultural sector. He assured the audience that when elected as president of Ghana, he will ensure that the Western Region becomes the hub of oil and gas industry in Africa and he will also develop the oil and gas fields in Saltpond. He mentioned that there is a gap between people in academia and practitioners in industry and that his government will engage these people into a network through an Energy Projects Implementation Committee. In his concluding remarks, he challenged the audience to consider voting an engineer as President of Ghana and that if voted President he will establish a Ghana Energy Authority (GEA) that will ensure decentralization and specialization of the energy sector to develop the various forms of energy in Ghana. “Through GEA activities, Ghana’s energy supply will be diversified with more generation from renewable energy sources and Ghanaians will also be educated on efficient energy utilization and measures to minimize our energy consumption”.

The FoE 2012 special seminar series continues with presentations from the flagbearers with representatives in parliament on 16th November and from 21st to 23rd November.

For a copy of the concept note describing the FoE seminar series as a whole, please click here.