Ghana’s indus­trialisation agen­da has received a boost as Africa’s largest ‘Solar Rooftop Project’ situated at the Free Zones Enclave at Tema is expected to come on stream in the second quarter of next year.

Owned by Helios Solar Compa­ny (Helios) and part of the LMI Holdings Group, the rooftop solar project will supply 16.82 mega­watt of energy to Helios and its partners.

The fully funded project by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) forms part of an all-encom­passing $30 million clean power and water deal with LMI Holdings to support job creation and green­er, more sustainable, and more competitive industrial development in the country.

The Chief Executive Officer of LMI Group Holdings, Kojo Aduhene, disclosed this when the Minister of Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, and his team paid a working visit to the site of the project.

He said the achievement by He­lios Solar represented a significant milestone for the company and underscored its commitment to facilitating Ghana’s industrialisation ambitions.

“As an indigenous Ghanaian company, we understand the wealth of natural resources available to us and are keen to utilise technologies to help us realise our industrialisa­tion ambitions. This solar system is good, not just for the environment, but also for our economy,” he said.

Expressing his delight at the project, the minister mentioned that the project would serve as a learning hub for artisans to acquire the skills in putting up solar and maintaining solar facilities.

In furtherance, he noted that the project would contribute signifi­cantly to Ghana’s renewable energy by 2030.

IFC’s Senior Country Manager for Ghana, Mr Kyle Kelhofer, also said the project demonstrated how the private sector could bring effec­tive solutions to development chal­lenges and support job creation

“Through this investment, IFC is supporting Ghana’s industriali­sation ambitions for a greener and more sustainable future by funding both infrastructure and develop­ment in an industrial special eco­nomic zone in sub-Saharan Africa,” he added.

The PV Solar project is en­gineered by Ghana-based solar energy firm, Dutch and Co., which is the EPC and O&M contractor on the project.

The project involves the installa­tion of 29,252 solar panels of the latest N-type technology across a rooftop area of 95,000m2 of the International Warehousing Compa­ny, Mega-warehouse, located in the Tema Freezone.

A total of 128 Ghanaian nation­als are directly employed in the im­plementation of the solar project.

The solar plant, compared with current thermal power on the national grid, is expected to reduce Ghana’s emissions by approximate­ly 13,000 tonnes of CO2 equiva­lent annually.

Once in use, it is projected that the solar system will annually produce 24,750 megawatts per hour (MWH) of clean, stable and sustainable electricity, and this quantum of power generated is equivalent to the annual consump­tion of 55,000 homes in other words, the capacity of the plant can power 55,000 homes.