Ghana is looking forward to having nuclear and renewable energy as part of the country’s energy mix.
This is according to the Minister for Energy, Matthew Opoku Prempeh.
Making the assertion at a workshop organised by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) on Ghana’s Nuclear Power Efforts in Accra, the Minister cited the cleanness and cheapness of the the two energy forms as reasons for government’s decision to add nuclear and renewable energy to the country’s energy mix.
“Government envisions an energy future not of either nuclear or renewables, but of nuclear and renewables.”
“There is a growing chorus of voices recognising that nuclear energy has an important role in decarbonizing electricity generation for accelerated industrial development,” Dr Opoku Prempeh stated.
“While renewable energy sources are expected to continue to grow significantly, nuclear power, an important part of today’s clean energy, is also the largest source of low-carbon electricity generation in advanced economies, providing about 40 percent of all low carbon generation,” he added.
Quoting an IEA report titled ‘Nuclear Power is a clean energy system’, he said the report reiterated the fact that without nuclear investment, achieving a sustainable energy system would be much harder and would have implications for emissions, costs and energy security in any country.
Ghana’s Energy Minister also emphasised that within Ghana’s power generation circles, issues on consistent demand growth, high tariffs for industries, affordability and resilience criteria have brought to the front burner on the issue of an alternative baseload power.
As a measure to augment Ghana’s energy sources in 2007, Ghana’s former President, Agyekum Kufuor set up a committee to explore the possibility of Ghana using nuclear energy as an alternative baseload source of power.
That was in furtherance of Ghana’s first president, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of establishing Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC) to spearhead the establishment of nuclear power plant in the future.
Speaking further at the workshop, Dr Opoku-Prempeh noted that in addition to electricity generation, nuclear energy, he said can provide solution to an even wider range of applications for the country.
Innovative nuclear technologies such as small Medium Rector (SMRs), Dr. Opoku Prempeh explained, would complement existing large reactions to enable deep decarbonisation as part of the clean energy transition.
“Nuclear technologies are equally improving people’s lives in many other ways and are supporting sustainable developments. Medical, industry and agricultural applications of nuclear technologies are used all over the world, including Ghana,” he said.
Ghana’s Energy Minister further stressed that a new nuclear power station does not only generate reliable low-carbon electricity but also provides many wider social and economic benefits both during its development, construction and subsequent 60-year operational phase.
