The Volta River Authority (VRA) is to construct two landing sites along the coast of Aboano, in the Ekumfi district of the Central Region, for fishermen who may be impacted by the construction of a 700MW coal plant.
The landing sites are to ensure that the fishermen’s trade is not in any way interrupted by the coal plants’ siting and a dedicated harbour for receiving imported coal. According to the VRA, the entire project requires 270 hectares of land to execute.
Ben A. Sackey, Manager, Environment and Social Impact-VRA said: “We conducted community consultations between November and December 2015, culminating in a visit to the thermal power plant at Aboadze by 31 Community members from Ekumfi in December, 2015”.
The coastal town of Aboano was selected by the VRA as the ideal location after initial consideration of sites in Domunli, Akwidaa and Komenda on purely technical and economic bases.
The coal power project is to be undertaken by the Volta River Authority (VRA) and its Chinese partner, Shenzhen Energy Group Co. Ltd. of China (SEC).
The China-Africa Development Fund (CADFund) is to provide an about-US$1.5billion long-term loan for construction of the two 350MW coal-fired plants to meet future power demand.
This represents the first phase of developing coal plants by the largest power producer, as it seeks to strengthen the country’s base load and forestall any future shortage of power when existing plants are due for mandatory maintenance.
Ing Theophilus Nii Okai, Director, Environment and Sustainable Development said: “We have also identified a site where we will relocate farmers inland that are affected by the project. The relocation site will have all the necessary social amenities similar to what we have done in Akosombo”.
Current electricity demand for the country stands at about 2,225MW, which is growing by 10 percent per annum and expected to hit 7,000MW by 2030.
However, constraints on fuel sources for power generation — crude oil, gas and water for hydro power generation — have necessitated the need for exploring cost-effective, reliable, and clean power sources.
Given the current gas demand of about 450Mscf per day, indigenous gas and limited supply from the West Africa Gas Pipeline are unable to meet demand. Available indigenous gas is also expected to run out by 2036.
Coal, on the other hand, is available at a cheaper cost around the world. Advancements in coal power technology have also made it possible to generate clean power from coal.
Coal supply has also been secured from Glencore Xstrata of South Africa, which has about 30.2billion tonnes of reserves. The second coal supplier is Anglo America from Columbia, which has about 6.2billion tonnes of coal reserves.
Source: B&FT Online