By: Prosper Agbenyega & Stephen Tetteh
LPG consumption in Ghana has increased from 5,267 tonnes in 1989 to 32,000 tonnes in 1996 with its consumption at the end of 2010 hitting 178,400 tonnes every year.
This development in the rise of consumption of LPG is linked to the strategies government put in place, especially the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) Promotional programme in 1989, which was aimed at reducing wood fuel consumption for cooking.
This was made known by the Minister for Energy Hon. Dr. Joe Oteng-Adjei at the opening of a consultative meeting held on sustainable energy for all accelerated framework (SEAAF).
According to the minister, the vision of Ghana’s energy sector is to develop and energy economy that ensures secured and reliable energy services for all sectors of the economy in a sustainable manner, adding that government’s desire to develop the country’s energy sector is on course.
Dr. Oteng-Adjei noted that the SEAAF is a laudable initiative that will compliment government’s efforts to ensuring universal access to energy, pointing out that the government of Ghana on its own is executing numerous initiatives that will help ensure the effective and sustainable development of the country’s energy sector.
“The government began the National Electrification Scheme (NES) which seeks to provide universal access to electricity by 2020. I am happy to state that significant progress has been made and it is estimated that about 72% of Ghanaians have access to grid electricity,” he said.
Dr. Oteng-Adjei also enumerated that the Ministry of Energy has formulated a strategy to promote vigorously the use of LPG, in line with the ministry’s efforts in increasing LPG penetration from its current level of 12% of domestic and public institutions to 50% by the end of 2015.
“We expect this promotional activity to commence in 2013 when the Gas Processing plant which will process natural gas from the Jubilee fields would be operational.”
He mentioned that, “The ministry introduced the Improved Cook stoves Programme which was aimed at efficient biomass and led to the production and sales of some 40,000 Ahinbenso Stoves by 1993 with financial support from ESMAP of the World Bank and UNDP/GEF Small Grants Programme.”
The Energy minister also averred that the development of Ghana’s renewable resources is dear to the heart of government and that, it has formulated energy strategies under which renewable energy will contribute about 10% to the national energy mix by 2020.
“To ensure attainment of the 10% target, the Parliament of Ghana has recently passed the Renewable Energy Act.”
On her part, the Minister for Environment Science and Technology, Hon. Sherry Ayittey said, demand for energy and its associated services to meet social and economic development is on the increase, saying that increasing the share of renewable energy in the energy mix will require policies that will stimulate changes in the energy system.
“Development of Renewable energy technologies has increases rapidly in recent years, and their share is projected to increase substantially under most ambitious mitigation scenarios. Additional policies would be required to attract the necessary increases in investment in technologies and infrastructure,” she said.
The meeting was organised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to support Ghana’s Energy Commission to develop a Country Action Plan on Sustainable Energy For All.
The document, Dr. Oten-Adjei said, would be presented at the upcoming Climate Summit in Rio (Rio+20) for donors to contribute to the funding of the various programmes to be proposed in the Action Plan.
