A US$1.5 billion coal power plant to be built at Ekumfi Aboano in the Ekumfi District of the Central Region is expected to commerce this second quarter.
The 2,000 megawatt power plant project, undertaken by the Volta River Authority (VRA) and China’s Shenzhen Energy Corporation (SEC) with the capital outlay from the China African Development (CAD) Fund will also have a harbour to import the coal from South Africa and Colombia.
Mr. Jacob Brown Yawson, Manager of Technical Services, VRA at Aboadze, addressing participants at a public hearing on the proposed project, assured that the VRA and its partners had taken strict measures to check carbon emissions and other issues related to coal use.
“We have met with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the scoping reports, which is on our website, and other stakeholders and today, we have met Ekumfiman for the people to understand the project and the benefits for the communities and Ghana as a whole. We want to ensure that we have a totally closed storage operations to avoid pollution,” he said.
Mr. Yawson said that phase one of the project would target 700 megawatts of coal power, while the second phase would hit 1,400 megawatts, moving to the 2,000 megawatts mark at the peak.
He said a total of about two million tonnes of coal would be imported from Colombia and South Africa every year, over the 25-year lifespan of the project.
Mr.Yawson said that the project had come at a time when recent GRIDCo energy assessment indicated that demand for power was growing at seven per cent per annum, and, therefore, there was the critical need to embark on the project.
He said: “We want to have a second energy system that is resilient and absorb all economic shocks and ensure energy security that is economically sound.”
Mr. Yawson said the project was geared towards sustainable development because it was important that we meet the energy requirements for future generation,explaine that there was the need to diversify the energy resources of the country, as Ghana could not afford to rely on one traditional source.
Youth groups and environmentalists expressed concern about safety and environmental impact of coal operations, especially carbon emissions and greenhouse effects, saying they were serious issues that needed to be tackled.
The District Chief Executive for Ekumfi, Mr. Ibrahim K. Dawson, was happy the project had come to the area describing it as historic and said it would go a long way in addressing some development outcomes including job creation and the shortfalls in power generation.
Source: B&FT Online