CARGILL SOLAR POWER: RENEWABLE ENERGY IS NEW PARADIGM – VRA CHAIR AFFIRMS

The Board Chairman of the Volta River Authority (VRA), Mr. Kweku Awotwi, has applauded Cargill Ghana Limited for putting in place a solar facility in Ghana.

Leading a delegation of stakeholders in the energy and cocoa sectors to inspect a solar facility implemented by cocoa processors, the VRA boss said renewable energy is the way to go.

The entourage included the Chairman of HFC Bank (Gh,) Ltd, Mr. Charles Zwennes, Programmes Manager at GIZ and Renewable Energy Consultant, Steffen Behrle, Chairman of African Tiger Holdings Limited, Mr. Henri Wientjes as well as executives from VRA, Energy Commission and COCOBOD.

The facility tour afforded these stakeholders the opportunity to gain insight into this energy project and discuss how it supports government’s vision in both the energy and cocoa sectors.

The delegation was briefed by Pieter Reichert, Cargill Ghana Managing Director, after which they were conducted round the solar facility by Richard Adjei, Cargill Ghana Plant Maintenance Manager.

Speaking to journalists after touring the facility, Mr. Awotwi said Ghana’s industrial sector needed innovation with energy solutions and Cargill’s approaches reflect this new paradigm. He stressed the need for effective partnerships in the energy sector to yield the desired results.

“As players in the energy sector, we strongly consider options in renewable energy as the game changer in our quest to provide adequate and reliable power supply. Our industries in particular require a lot of energy to stay in business and relying on the national grid alone may not be enough and that is why we need to be innovative with our power generation solutions. Significantly, we see what Cargill has done as part of the new paradigm that we are embracing as far as the provision of power is concerned.

“Ghana has great potentials in renewable energy. We know a lot of businesses who are making efforts to tap into this sector. What Cargill has done with this solar project is to lead the way and I am excited to encourage more businesses in the private sector to come up with such energy-efficient plans” Mr. Behrle remarked.

Representatives of various stakeholder agencies who spoke to journalists after the tour expressed confidence in the project stressing that initiatives in Clean Energy is the way to go for industries.