The seat of the country’s Presidency, Jubilee House will by June 2020 have sixty percent (60%) of the entire State facility powered by a nine hundred and twelve (912 KWp) “Kilowatt peak” solar power PV plant.
The Minister for Energy, Peter Amewu, made the disclosure when he paid a working visit to the Jubilee House to inspect the ongoing installation works of the solar system at the Jubilee House, a project that is being carried out by Strategic Security System Limited (SSS), a wholly Ghanaian owned solar company.
President Akufo-Addo in his “State of the Nation Address” to Parliament on the 21st of February 2019 revealed that his administration looks forward to installing “Solar Power Panels” at the Jubilee House that will result in the seat of Government having about 60% of its energy needs supplied by solar.
Energy Minister
The Energy Minister in an interview with the press after his inspection tour on top of the reception building of the Jubilee House indicated that the contract price of the entire project is one million, four hundred and ninety – four thousand three hundred and fifty US dollars ($1,494,350.00).
“Having visited the site, I am very much impressed about progress on site. This work is part of government agenda towards inclusion of renewable energy in our energy mix. As government, we believe in the importance of renewable. We have a target of ten percent (10%) as a proportion of our energy mix within 2020. Already, we are behind that schedule. The President did promise in his last State of the Nation Address to Ghanaians that Jubilee House is going to be feed on renewable. I am encouraging the contractors to go ahead with the speed at which they are going about this project” the Energy Minister, Peter Amewu said.
Scheduled Completion
The Minister in his interaction with the Project Contractor revealed that all the PV panels for the installations have all been delivered to site and looking at the speed at which the contractor is going, they should be able completed on or before the scheduled time of June 2020.
Solar Energy
Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of ever-evolving technologies such as solar heating, photovoltaics, solar thermal energy, solar architecture, molten salt power plants and artificial photosynthesis.
It is an important source of renewable energy and its technologies are broadly characterized as either passive solar or active solar depending on how they capture and distribute solar energy or convert it into solar power.
Active solar techniques include the use of photovoltaic systems, concentrated solar power and solar water heating to harness the energy. Passive solar techniques include orienting a building to the Sun, selecting materials with favorable thermal mass or light-dispersing properties, and designing spaces that naturally circulate air.