Ghana Kumasi Microgrid and Off-Grid Energy Storage

The government of Ghana has established pilot renewable minigrids in five off-grid communities as a testing ground for the electrification of over 600 existing rural communities that cannot be electrified via the national grid.

Ownership of the project's assets is vested in the government of Ghana. In all, a total 228 kW of photovoltaic capacity has been installed at the five minigrid sites supplying a total of 598 households. Households use this electricity typically for lighting, cell phone charging, powering their television and radio, fans, and fridges.

Although the surveyed communities generally shared similar socioeconomic characteristics with the rural poor in Ghana (and hence results are generalizable), these minigrid communities have had the benefit of already enjoying renewable electricity access relative to the other rural population with little or no electricity access.

Despite the economic feasibility of extending the electricity grid to under-served areas in some situations, minigrids may be better suited to address the low electrification rates and electrification challenges in areas with scattered households, low populations, and low demand potential [1,3,4].

Though investment levels in the solar minigrid market remain low , recent years have witnessed a significant increase in interest from different stakeholders (i.e., inter-national organizations, governments, and the private sector) in developing minigrids as cost-effective and reliable means to reach unelectrified populations .

Available online: https://www2 .statsghana.gov.gh/publications.html (accessed on 18 August 2021). Kateregga, E. The Welfare Costs of Electricity Outages: A Contingent Valuation Analysis of Households in the Suburbs of Kampala, Jinja and Entebbe. J. Dev. Agric. Econ. 2009, 1, 1–11.