Author(s): Philip Tetteh Padi
Linked Author(s): PHILIP TETTEH PADI
Keywords: United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Climate change Floating Solar Volta Lake
Abstract: To provide affordable and clean energy, build resilient infrastructure (United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), goals 7 and 9), and tackle the issues of climate change which is affecting both existing and planned hydro resources, there is the need to introduce more renewable energy (solar) into the energy mix and redefine the current roles of hydro reservoirs from the traditional baseload function to a more sustainable role, providing storage for other renewable energy sources (solar) through hybrid systems. To increase the potential for hybrid systems and introduce flexibility and scalability, and reduce the use of land for land-based solar systems, the Volta Lake, which is the world's largest man‐made lake, in terms of surface area covering about 8,502 square kilometers, created during the construction of the Akosombo Dam between 1961 and 1966, offers a huge potential for the attainment of the 10% renewable energy penetration by 2030 set by Ghana. The Renewable Energy Law of Ghana passed in 2011, Act 832 (amended in 2020), has set a 10% renewable contribution target for all distribution companies and bulk customers. Also, the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) submitted to the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Ghana set a target of achieving 10% renewable energy penetration by 2030. This translates to installing about 1,300 MW of renewable energy in the generation mix of Ghana. Therefore, This paper seeks to present the huge potential of floating solar and hybrid systems available for the Ghanaian energy system and use the huge reservoir as storage for intermittent renewables.
Year: 2025