Amazed by the huge investments SunonAsogli Power (Ghana) Limited is sinking to ensure a clean and healthy environment for the people of Kpone and its environs, the Executive Director for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could not but open his remarks by applauding the power company as “being the master of the game.”
Dr Henry Kwabena Kokofu was impressed when he was taken on a tour around some sections of the first Independent Power Producer (IPP) in Ghana, where he witnessed the enormous capital investment the company has made, especially 817.6kWp total installed capacity of solar energy.
The internal purpose environmentally friendly renewable energy panel comprises 2,044 pieces of 400Wp PV panels, 29GWh total electricity to be generated for25 years to offset 24,000 tons of carbon dioxide.
“These are indeed huge investments and they make you the master of the game,” Dr Kokofu said. He made the observation when he and a team of experts from the EPA paid a three-day working visit to selected industries in Tema to assess the level of environmental compliance of the industries and create a continuous awareness of EPA’s monitoring and enforcement mandate.
Welcoming Dr Kokofu and his team at the conference room for a briefing, before the factory tour, Jin Zhengyi, General Manager (GM) for SunonAsogli Power (Ghana) Limited explained that the industry has a total of 560MW power plant, making it the largest IPP in Ghana. Its commercial operation started in 2011.
The industry has its phase two on-stream, generating 360MW power with natural gas as its main fuel supply.
Among SunonAsogli Power (Ghana) Limited’s key indicators on environmental issues included the construction of buffer zones, solar energy, installation of equipment to lower the noise level of huge generators, protecting the sea from oil spillage and regular beach cleaning all in a bid to ensure an eco-friendly environment.
The company is almost through with feasibility studies on putting up a waste to energy power plant, wind energy at Ada and solar PV panels at Dawa, both in the Greater Accra Region.
Resettlement payments had been made to a remarkable number of settlers who fell within the construction of the buffer zone.
Appreciating the importance of renewable energy to the energy mix for a clean environment, Dr Kokofu explained that Ghana would continue to learn from the industrial revolution of China.
“China has come this far because of industrial revolution; the catalyst for the world’s development and Ghana will learn from China’s industrialisation. That is why, for instance, the country is no more over-dependent on hydro power,” he stressed.
The EPA Executive Director, though praised SunonAsogli (Ghana) contributions to maintaining high environmental standards, also reminded his host not to relax by compromising the integrity of the environment, especially with complaints from the residents of Kpone on the noise levels from their power generators.
“You have explained the measures you have taken to reduce the noise levels, but my officers shall come back to check due to the complaints from the community. We need to always consider the health and convenience of our people,” he added.
The post EPA lauds Sunon-Asogli for huge capital investment in energy sector appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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