Ghana Increases Levy On Petroleum Products To Fund Solar Power Projects


Support CleanTechnica's work through a Substack subscription, on Patreon, or on Stripe. Help us produce all of the high-quality, original content we publish week after week despite the challenges of content-scraping AI, antisocial media, inflation, and other hurdles.

Developing countries are taking small yet definitive steps to reduce subsidies and implement taxes on fossil fuels, with Ghana being the latest to have taken a decision in the same direction.

Flag-map of GhanaThe President of Ghana has announced that the levy on petroleum products will be increased to $0.02 per litre. As per the provisions of the customs and excise duty act in Ghana, liquefied petroleum gas will be exempt from the levy.

A part of the revenue raised from this levy will be used to establish the Renewable Energy Fund. This fund, in turn, will be used to set up approximately 200,000 rooftop solar power projects which, according to reports, would “save 200 MW daily.”

Additionally, a levy of $0.02 will be charged on a per kWh basis on electricity transmitted. Revenue from this levy, too, will be used for supporting solar power projects.

Ghana has an installed power generation capacity of 2,100 MW, of which hydro-power has the lion’s share of over 60%. The government has shown serious intent to boost all renewable energy technologies including solar, wind, and small hydro power.

Ghana passed the Renewable Energy Act in 2011 which introduced a feed-in tariff structure for project developers and renewable energy purchase obligation for distribution utilities. The Act gave powers to regulatory bodies to implement appropriate feed-in tariffs and renewable purchase obligation after discussions with stakeholders.

These supportive policy initiatives have started to attract international investors and project developers, many of whom have announced large-scale solar and wind energy projects.

Image Credit: Andriyko_UA | Public Domain


Sign up for CleanTechnica's Weekly Substack for Zach and Scott's in-depth analyses and high level summaries, sign up for our daily newsletter, and follow us on Google News!
Advertisement
 
Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.
Sign up for our daily newsletter for 15 new cleantech stories a day. Or sign up for our weekly one on top stories of the week if daily is too frequent.

CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

CleanTechnica's Comment Policy


Mridul Chadha

Mridul currently works as Head-News & Data at Climate Connect Limited, a market research and analytics firm in the renewable energy and carbon markets domain. He earned his Master’s in Technology degree from The Energy & Resources Institute in Renewable Energy Engineering and Management. He also has a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering. Mridul has a keen interest in renewable energy sector in India and emerging carbon markets like China and Australia.

Mridul Chadha has 425 posts and counting. See all posts by Mridul Chadha