Renewable energy sources and grid integration in Ghana: Issues, challenges and solutions

Due to the high cost of fuel and as unfavourable weather conditions which have affected power generation in Ghana, the country has experienced power crises for the past seven years. Renewable Energy Resources (RES) like wind and solar are being considered by many countries as alternatives for the energy requirements of the country. Ghana's Energy Commission's (EC) report in October, 2017 indicated that, RE contributes 2MW of power to the country's energy mix, representing about 1.73% of the total installed capacity. However, the current EC's energy policy has projected 600MW power through RE in 2030. 340 MW from solar and 260 MW from wind energies. The then Ministry of Energy through the Energy Commission started the rooftop PV programme implementation in early 2016 in some government institutions. The main aim of the rooftop programme was to produce about 200 MW maximum load respite on the national grid as a medium term programme through PV solar technology. However, RE and grid integration has various issues and challenges, large scale RE power generation are mainly connected to the transmission systems and small-scale generation are mostly linked with the distribution system. Direct integration these systems poses a lot of challenges and issues. This paper examines the main issues and proposes some probable solutions for future RE generations and integration.