Ghana – Ghana's renewable energy capacity stands at around 280 megawatts, roughly 5 percent of the national energy mix. The government wants 7 percent by 2027. Getting there will require all the resources the country can mobilise: legislation, public investment and private capital.
Energy and Green Transition Minister John Abdulai Jinapor has made the case plainly: solar offers Ghana a cleaner and cheaper long-term alternative to expensive thermal generation.
Benjamin Boakye, executive director of the Africa Centre for Energy Policy, agrees on the direction but wants more ambition in how it is pursued.
"Ghana has the potential to become a leader in renewable energy if the country prioritises local innovation, skills development, research, and domestic manufacturing capacity rather than depending heavily on imported technologies," he said.
The legal framework is Act 832, administered by Ghana's Energy Commission. Passed in 2011, it governs the development and management of renewable energy and underpins the instruments driving the current push: net metering, mini-grids and off-grid solar systems.
Projects reshaping the grid
The Bui Power Authority has become the most active public developer in Ghana's solar expansion. Its floating solar installation on the Black Volta River, at 5 megawatts the first of its kind in the country, is already operational with plans to scale it to 65 megawatts. A 40-megawatt land-based plant in the Bono Region is also running.
The most significant new addition is the Galgu Solar Plant in Yendi in the Northern Region. The 50-megawatt facility, built by the Bui Power Authority with First Sky Limited at a cost of $59 million, feeds directly into the national grid under an engineering, procurement, construction and financing agreement.
The Volta River Authority has taken a different route, developing a portfolio of smaller plants across the north. Its 2.5-megawatt facility in Navrongo, commissioned in 2013, was Ghana's first utility-scale solar plant. A 6.5-megawatt plant in Lawra and a 13-megawatt plant in Kaleo followed. A 30-megawatt floating installation at the Kpong Hydro Reservoir is in development.
At the community level, a 253-kilowatt mini-grid in the Ada East District now supplies electricity to around 3,700 residents across three previously off-grid communities.
Private capital scales up
The private sector is moving in at a different order of magnitude. LMI Holdings is developing the Dawa Industrial Enclave Solar Park with a target of 1,000 megawatts by 2030.
The International Finance Corporation has approved a $100 million dollar facility for the first 150-megawatt phase, with the initial 100 megawatts due by October 2026. The company has secured a 2,300-acre land bank at Dawa to support the development.
LMI already operates what the IFC describes as Africa's largest single rooftop solar installation: a 16.82-megawatt facility at the Tema Free Zones Enclave, built by subsidiary Helios Solar with a $30 million IFC loan.
Managing director Adlai Opoku-Boamah called it "a significant milestone toward the company's dream of energy independence and environmental stewardship". The plant is projected to cut emissions by around 10,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually.
Reaching remote communities
The hardest part of the transition is reaching communities that existing infrastructure has never served. An $85 million programme backed by the African Development Fund, the Climate Investment Funds, the Swiss government and Ghana is targeting more than 70,000 people in remote and island communities.
The Ghana Scaling-Up Renewable Energy Programme will deploy 12,000 net-metered solar systems for households, establish 35 mini-grids serving 47 island communities and provide 1,450 solar home systems for off-grid households.
Solar power will also reach 750 small and medium-sized enterprises, 400 schools and 200 health centres, with island and northern communities the priority.
"These interventions are part of a broader strategy to build a green energy sector that serves all Ghanaians, especially those historically left behind," Jinapor said.
Boakye's concern is that building more capacity is not enough. Without investment in transmission and distribution, and without developing local manufacturing rather than importing hardware, he argues, Ghana risks constructing a solar sector that remains permanently dependent on others to sustain it.
