Renewable Energies in Ghana in Relation to Market Condition, the Environment, and Food Security

Abstract

Energy is essential to the development of a country, and several studies have been carried out on the production and use of energy by industrialised countries. However, little research and development has been carried out in developing countries on renewable energy. Also, the importance of traditional fuels such as biomass has not been emphasised in developing countries like Ghana, which rely on fossil fuels. Ghana relies heavily on imported petroleum fuel obtained from fossil fuels. However, fossil fuels are faced with many limitations including environmental pollution and an escalating price. Hydropower, biomass, biofuel, wind, and solar energy are the major renewable energy resources expected to be fully exploited in the future. This study, therefore, assesses the sources of the main renewable energy in relation to policy, the conditions of the market and food security. The government of Ghana has put in place a favourable business environment for the renewable energy sector by setting explicit feed-in tariffs (FITs). In addition, various acts and legislation have been passed and formulated by the relevant institutions (Renewable Energy Act (832) of 2011). The study revealed that there is an increase in the exploitation and use of energy from renewable resources when compared with the past decades. However, this exploitation is still limited due to barriers such as the cost of technologies, financing issues, and scientific and technical barriers.