Israeli company partners ACEP to generate electricity in Ghana with sea waves
As the energy crisis in Ghana deepens, the country is being flooded with different technologies to address the nagging issue.
An Israeli company is partnering with a Ghana energy policy organization, the Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) to generate electricity from sea waves.
Dr Amin Anta Mohammed, the Executive Director of ACEP has confirmed to ghanabusinessnews.com on the phone that indeed, the organization has signed a partnership agreement with the company for the project.
The Israeli company, WERPO says it is planning to start the project to generate 500MW of electricity in Ghana using sea waves. According to the company’s director, Shmuel Ovadia cited in a report by The Rakyat Post, an Indonesian publication, the company is hoping to rake in “tens of millions of dollars” in revenues from the installations.
The report also says installation works on the six-power generation converters being built at the Ada Estuary in the Greater Accra Region are about 85 per cent complete and a test trial of the first phase of power generation will begin in March 2015.
“The test trial will start with eight megawatts of power and systematically increase until it reaches the intended 1,000MW by December 2015,” it says.
WERPO, the publication says stands for Wave Electricity Renewable Power Ocean, and holds the intellectual property, technology, know-how and contracts previously associated with Israel-based sea wave power firm SDE Ltd.
According to the report, the company has similar joint ventures in China and the Caribbean.
The report citing SeeNews Renewables, says the company has already built nine wave power devices in Israel and two models in China, but none of its power stations have started commercial operations yet.
Meanwhile, the Volta River Authority, Ghana’s main power generator had indicated that about $1.5 billion was needed to improve the country’s power generation, while President John Mahama has noted that the country ought to generate at least 220 megawatts of power every year to end the crisis.
By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi