General News of Wednesday, 4 October 2017

Source: starrfmonline.com

Flagstaff House, Parliament to run on solar energy

The Flagstaff House is the seat of government of Ghana The Flagstaff House is the seat of government of Ghana

Ghana’s seat of government, the Flagstaff House and Parliament would soon be running on solar energy, following the ratification of a framework agreement on renewable energy.

With the ratification, a 400 megawatt solar plant would be established with engineering being provided by Early Power Limited.

Being the 14th country in the tropics to ratify this agreement, Ghana now has the opportunity to access a 10 billion dollar loan facility geared towards the promotion of renewable energy.

This was one of the main reasons why the House had to reconvene after a long break.

Members of Parliament had to extend sitting late Tuesday evening to ensure the agreement is ratified making Ghana a member of the 14 founding countries.

Speaking to Starr News, the Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko said government will send a right signal to the entire country if its key buildings run solely on solar.

“It makes a lot of sense that in order to utilize our solar and produce the necessary demonstration effect for the rest of the country, those significant buildings adopt solar,” Mr. Agyarko told Starr FM’s Ibrahim Alhassan.

He added, “So the Ministry of energy building, the Parliament House of Ghana and Jubilee House must all go solar to send the right signal to the rest of the nation that the government is behind it and that is the proper thing to do.”