GHANA – TC’s Energy USA has partnered with Power China Huadong Engineering Corporation Ltd and Seabased of Sweden in the revival of the Ada Foah wave energy park that had stalled for years due to unavailability of funds.
The project will be supported by TC’s Energy Ghana, a wholly Ghanaian owned company is the local counterpart to the project, Africa Energy Portal revealed.
The new partnership creates a framework which outlines how finances for the construction of the wave energy will be raised.
Under the terms of the agreement, Power China, a state-owned key enterprise, will provide 85 per cent of the cost, while the remaining 15 per cent is to be borne by the Ghanaian company.
The Ada Foah wave energy project is located in the Gulf of Guinea in Ghana, about 17 km off the coast of Ada.
The project employs an environmentally friendly technology – the ‘SEABASED’ Wave Energy Converters (WEC) – to generate 1,000 megawatts (MW/H) of power from sea waves.
The wave energy project will involve the installation of generator units (WECs) and marine substations offshore and the installation of an onshore substation to connect to the national grid.
It will also involve the laying of cables to link the offshore generating units and the onshore sub-station located about 100m from the shore.
The initial plan is to begin with five megawatts and scale up to the project target of 100 megawatts within 24 months.
Seabased Industry AB (the technical partner in the project), in collaboration with TC’s Energy, has been working to create Africa’s first wave power plant, at Ada Foah since 2015.
The pilot project which costed its sponsors close to US$10 million successfully generated abundant power which was seamlessly fed into the national distribution system.
The huge success of the initial pilot led to interests from investors who have now pledged up to US$2 billion towards the entire project.
The project is now due to start once Ghana’s borders were open and the foreign technical team is free to travel to the West African country.
Officials say the project will offer energy at a lower cost of between 3 and 4 cents compared with 10 or more cents available from hydro and thermal.
Besides, there is an enormous environmental benefit since the project is renewable with little to no carbon print in its operation.
The project is backed by a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) between TC’s Energy Limited and the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to offtake up to 1,000 MW of power from the project.
Liked this article? Subscribe to DealStreet Africa News, our regular email newsletter with the latest news, deals and insights from Africa’s business, economy and more. SUBSCRIBE HERE
