Parliament approves agreement to go solar

Parliament has ratified the framework agreement on the establishment of international solar.

The agreement, which was ratified by Parliament on Tuesday, 4 October will see the country benefiting from an opportunity to access a $10 billion renewable energy loan facility from India.

The agreement, which is for countries located in the tropics, comes at no financial burden to the country.

Energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko, touting the benefits of the international agreement to Class News after approval was given by Parliament said Ghana's seat of government and the legislature are expected to run on solar power following the ratification of the framework agreement.

He told parliamentary correspondent, Ekow Annan, that: “The Parliament of Ghana and the Jubilee House must all go solar to send the right signals to the rest of the nation that the government is behind it and that is the proper thing to do. Secondly, it reduces the crunch on the national budget so that government doesn’t have to spend all that money.

“Thirdly, it reduces the load on the national grid so that instead of continually adding generation capacity as the population and demands grow, we will be able to manage what we already have. We have hydro and hydro is renewable. The best combination we know and all the research points to is to combine hydro with solar so that during the day, you run solar and at night you run hydro. That way, you are able to expand the possibilities of the dams and also conserve the water in the reservoir much better.

“This is how we think the combination ought to happen. As soon as we deposit the articles of ratification, we become members and then we can begin to tap into the resources…”