Dominic Derzu, Henry Mensah-Brown and Abeeku Brew-Hammond

16.1. THE INCREASING ENERGY DEMAND IN GHANA

The demand for power has increased significantly in Ghana over the years, resulting in an annual power supply crisis since 1983. Thus the country has had increasing difficulties in meeting the demand of domestic and industrial consumers, and export commitments to neighboring countries. In fact, Ghana used to be a net exporter of electricity but this situation has changed and the country is now a net importer of power from la Cote d’Ivoire. Hence there is an urgent need to look for alternative sources to widen the power generation mix in the country, while also improving the reliability of supply.

The hydropower plants at Akosombo and Kpong, and the recently added thermal plants at Takoradi, together with the import complements from la Cote d’Ivoire, cannot meet the power demand for various user categories. The short supply of electricity throughout Ghana forces many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to run expensive standby diesel generators to meet their energy requirements. The government has decided to remove all the latent hurdles preventing private sector involvement in the energy sector and the economy has been liberalized, resulting in an influx of new investors.

Biomass resources from the agricultural and forestry sectors are readily available for energy purposes along with wind and solar resources. The limiting factors for the utilization of these energy sources include location, availability and sustainability of the resources, fuel handling and preparation, and opportunities for fuel flexibility. In addition, the technology choice and its reliability, as well as the overall economics of energy projects are particularly important, especially now that the tariff regime is being reviewed towards better economic efficiency.

This chapter looks into the potential for wood waste utilization for power gene­ration in Kumasi, Ghana. The specific conditions for utilizing wood waste from wood-processing industries in cogeneration are presented for a project. The feasi­bility of the project is discussed under the framework of CDM, which also includes the boundary and baseline for the project, the carbon offsets as certified emissions

213 Bioenergy — Realizing the Potential

© 2005 Dr Semida Silveira Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

reductions (CERs) expected, and the outstanding issues that need to be solved to allow full implementation of the project. The project seeks to make use of abundant resources currently perceived as a nuisance to the environment, while also offering an opportunity for power generation.