Project to promote appliance energy efficiency inaugurated
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the Government of Ghana is implementing a project with funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) to promote Appliance Energy Efficiency and Transformation of the Refrigeration Appliance Market.
The GEF-funded project seeks to encourage energy efficiency standards for refrigeration appliance in the country and to demonstrate replicable and scalable equipment and replacement programme that removes inefficient and environmentally damaging appliance from the market.
Mr Kofi Agyarko, Head of Energy Efficiency and Climate Change at Energy Commission, speaking at the inauguration of the project at Akosombo, said the three-year project has eight components.
He said the components include: strengthening of regulatory and institutional framework, design of certification, labeling and enforcement systems, training and public outreach, establishment of refrigerating appliance test facility and used appliance collection and disposal facilities among others.
He said the objective of the project was to reduce Ghana’s energy-related carbon dioxide and ozone depleting substance emissions by mitigating the demand for energy in the country’s refrigeration and air conditioning sector.
Mr Agyarko said the project would work closely with the private sector to ensure that regulatory proposals and technical standards were widely disseminated and adopted throughout the local industries and businesses.
“It seeks to build upon past successes by ensuring a tight integration between government agencies responsible for establishing the proper regulatory framework and private sector operators responsible for implementing energy efficiency regulations,” he added.
Mr Agyarko noted that the project has also been designed to erase some of the significant barriers to allow for a fast transformation process for the refrigeration appliance market in the country.
“The project is to establish an energy labeling system, setting and implementing a minimum Energy Performance Standards and push efficiency levels beyond the mandatory standards through a consumer rebate, turn-in and incentive programme,’’ he noted.
He said with the implementation of the project the country seeks to benefit from the economic value of saving from the efficiency energy use while reducing in the carbon dioxide and ozone depleting substance emissions as an environmental benefit.
Professor Thomas Akabzza, Chief Director at the Ministry of Energy, who represented the Minister of Energy, said the Ministry has approved an initial amount GH¢1 million as part of government’s support to the project.
He said it was expected that the project would reduce energy consumption of refrigerators from a national average of 1,200 kilo watt hour per annum to 600 kilo watt her annum.
Prof Akabzza said government was putting measures in place to make sure the refrigeration appliance market was not flooded with new inefficient refrigerators after the ban on importation of used refrigerators.
He commended the development partners for their support in the promotion of solar lighting systems to replace kerosene lanterns and the promotion of Liquid Petroleum Gas in rural areas among others.
Mr Kofi Owusu-Hene, the Executive Director of Consumer Protection Agency, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency appealed to government to be committed to the enforcement of the law on the importation of used refrigerator appliances.
He called on the international community not to also allow these appliances to leave their home country, since it has health implications.
Source: GNA