Ghana signs $800m solar energy deal with Abu Dhabi firm Masdar
The government has finalised an $800 million power purchase agreement with UAE renewable energy giant Masdar to build a 500MW solar park in the Northern Region.
Ghana has signed an $800 million power purchase agreement with UAE renewable energy company Masdar to develop a 500 megawatt solar photovoltaic park in the Northern Region, the largest single renewable energy investment in West Africa to date, the Energy Ministry announced on Thursday.nnThe Pwalugu Solar Park, located on 1,800 hectares adjacent to the existing Pwalugu multipurpose dam project site, will feed into the national grid via a new 330kV transmission line connecting to the Bolgatanga substation. First power is expected in the fourth quarter of 2028, with full generation capacity reached by mid-2029.nnEnergy Minister John Jinapor said the agreement included a fifteen-year power purchase agreement at a fixed tariff of $0.049 per kilowatt-hour, the lowest solar tariff ever recorded for a West African utility-scale project. “We negotiated hard to get a tariff that does not punish consumers,” he said.nnMasdar CEO Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi described Ghana as a priority market for the company’s African expansion strategy and said the company planned to invest a further $500 million in a battery storage component of the project within three years of initial commissioning.nnThe Electricity Company of Ghana welcomed the announcement and noted that the additional generation capacity would help address persistent load shedding, particularly during dry months when the Akosombo dam operates below capacity.nnEnvironmental groups asked for disclosure of the project’s environmental and social impact assessment and expressed concern about the scale of land acquisition required. The Lands Commission confirmed that land is being accessed through a combination of compulsory acquisition and voluntary agreements with local landowners.
