Ghana to start building China funded $1.5b coal plant in 2017
The Volta River Authority (VRA), says construction of the country’s $1.5 billion coal power plant would be started in April 2017.
The coal plant would be sited at Ekumfi Aboano in the Ekumfi District of the Central Region.
The three and halve year power plant project completion, which is undertaken by the VRA and China’s Shenzhen Energy Corporation is funded by the China African Development Fund.
A total of about two million tonnes of coal would be imported from Colombia and South Africa every year; more than the 25-year lifespan of the project and the construction of the plant would also include a new coal port to receive the coal.
Mr Jacob Brown Yawson, Manager of Technical Services, VRA at Aboadze, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said the country has one of the highest demands for electricity, saying GRIDCO has an annual rate of seven per cent with other countries less than the percentage.
He said in December 2015, VRA and Shenzhen released a pre-feasibility environmental and social impact assessment for phase I: 2x350MW supercritical coal plant, including an affiliated coal handling terminal, while Phase II would be a 4X350MW or 2X600MW super-critical coal plant.
He said the key risk in the energy sector is fuel supply and that there is the need to diversify the energy sources since the country could not rely on one traditional source.
Mr Yawson said the phase one of the project would target 700 megawatts of coal power, while the second phase would hit 1,400 megawatts, moving to the 2,000 megawatts mark at the peak.
He said the project is geared towards sustainable development because it was important to meet the energy requirements for future generation.
Source: GNA