The African Energy Project / Blog

“If it is not yet dark, you cannot blame God.” 

Light and dark are such symbolic terms that they resonate through Akan proverbs. This saying means that, while the day has not ended one cannot give up hope. In the same vein, light and electricity in the physical sense lead to progress and solutions - but darkness can be blamed for failure.

Although electricity is often viewed as a modern luxury, it greatly affects basic human rights - such as access to quality education and health care. 5-year-old Kofi has lived most of his life without consistent electricity - despite having full access to the grid. For most of 2015, households and businesses in Ghana only had 12 hours of light in a 48 hour cycle.

Since the beginning of 2016, the power situation in Ghana has become more stable - but electricity prices have shot up. Nonetheless, flood lights lit up the sky over the Len Clay Sports Stadium in Obuasi during a soccer game between the Ebusua Dwarfs and New Edubiase FC.

One of the biggest challenges faced by government is the allocation of power to vital institutions - like hospitals, the water utility company, and the military. 

“The light issue is a big problem,” said Faustina Sapeh, a trader at Kaneshie market who sells dried fish and kenkey in the evenings.

The Akosombo Dam, commissioned by Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah in 1965, has been the country’s main source of energy for over 50 years. Fed by the Volta River, which runs for over 1,000 miles, the dam creates Lake Volta, the largest man-made lake in the world.

Alex Boateng sells electrical parts in Accra. “I always get excited when I see lights,” he said. 

During the power crisis, students at King’s College in Kumasi couldn’t study at night. The faculty acknowledged the issue and turned to an alternative solution: solar panels. 

The first fast food chain restaurant in the country, Papaye, is an icon of the rising middle class in Ghana.

With 89,760 solar panels producing 20 megawatts of power, The BXC Solar Plant in Ghana’s Central Region is the largest solar farm in West Africa. BXC, owned by a Chinese company, began formal operations in February after two and a half years of construction. Now, it consistently produces clean energy and contributes to Ghana’s ambitious plan to reach a 10% renewables milestone by 2020.

“The street lights you see here have been off for a very long time, almost 8 years,” said Love Deborah Bruce, a trader who sells skin cream at the Kaneshie Market overpass. “So every night we rent the light 1 cedi before we can sell our things.”


“We almost shut down because of the dumsor last year. It has improved now, because we are in a political [election] year…but the problem is still there.”

Benjamin Ansah, right, who works at a printing company, was printing a funeral program at Emmanuel Printz in Kumasi last week. Small scale businesses, like print shops, suffered heavily from power cuts until recently. Some attribute the current stability in power to the fact that this is an election year, but there are many factors involved. 

At Emmanuel Printz, the standard solution to face power cuts is to use a generator - but this can be very expensive and unreliable. During the energy crisis, employees like Kingsley Adjei Jeffrey, left, would often have to work late into the night, depending on when the lights came back. 

“If there is no light, we cannot use electric sewing machines,” said Georgina Arthur, a seamstress who has worked at Obuasi Central Market making handbags, dresses, and accessories for over 30 years. “When I started this business, [the electricity] was ok. But when dumsor started it slowed down. It is a little better now.”

“Plastic waste management is a big problem in Ghana. We have a lot of plastic and rubber […] that is sent to the landfills and it is an environmental issue,” said Alex Kumi-Larbi, Jr. who works for the Research and Innovation department of Zoom Lion Ghana, the country’s waste management company, in Accra.

Rattray Park is the newest luxury destination in Kumasi, Ghana’s second largest city. The ultramodern park offers an open air gym, concert venue, multiple cafes, golf cart tour, wifi, and a pool with a water fountain light show. 

It’s 9am in Accra, Ghana and there is no power at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, the country’s largest medical facility. Maintenance workers scramble to fix the power plant as pregnant women labor in the dark. The radiology patient sighs, waiting for the machine to turn back on, although most of the machines are faulty due to frequent power surges. Across town, a college graduate is unable to iron his suit before a job interview. In 24 hours, the lights will still be out and food in refrigerators will spoil.

The entirety of sub-saharan Africa currently produces less energy than South Korea – although its population is more than 18 times the size. Many African countries have been praised for their economic growth in recent years, with steadily rising GDPs across the continent. However, while the whole world looks at Africa as the future of new economies and opportunities, in particular when it comes to renewables and solutions to climate change, power cuts and energy inefficiency are massively impeding expansion.

The West African nation of Ghana, often lauded as a model for African democracy, is the perfect location to investigate the various effects (and solutions to) energy inefficiency in Africa. In 2010, Ghana’s economy prospered with a local currency on par with the dollar. Five years later, as the Ghana cedi fell four-fold, the economy and all aspects of life have been severely affected by power cuts. In Accra in 2015, the lights only stayed on for 12 hours in a given 48-hour cycle.

Although Ghana is struggling from power cuts (also called “load shedding” or “dumsor”), it is also a breeding ground for innovative alternatives. The government and universities are experimenting with large-scale solar power for streetlights, while entrepreneurial individuals come up with all sorts of inventions: combinations of car batteries and invertors power televisions and air conditioners, while solar-powered flashlights are even sold by hawkers in traffic jams.