Market Entry into Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency for the Productive Sector and TVET

Project description

Title: Market Entry into Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency for the Productive Sector and TVET
Commissioned by: Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
Countries: Ghana
Lead executing agency: Ministry of Energy
Overall term: 2018 to 2021

Context

In Ghana industry, trade, commerce and services are being slowed down by often recurring power outages resulting in increasing costs for production. Electricity providers can only pass on these costs to consumers to a limited extent due to a high level of competition, which is hindering profitability and economic growth. In order to reduce their electricity costs, the generation of electricity from renewable sources and/or improving energy efficiency (EE) would be an option. However, the market for such investments has yet to reach its full potential. The main obstacles include a lack of suitable financing, an unclear strategic orientation and policy, and inadequate capacities among private sector actors to develop renewable energy (RE) and EE solutions. 

To increase the amount of RE and EE investments, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has commissioned the bilateral project “Market entry in renewable energy and energy efficiency and technical education and vocational training (TVET) for the productive sector in Ghana”. The project supports the process of achieving the goals of the German-Ghanaian reform and investment partnership set by the Ghanaian partners in the Reform Roadmap.

Objective

The prerequisites for the use of RE and EE solutions by private-sector electricity consumers and energy supply companies are improved. This will be accompanied by improving the conditions for demand-oriented education and further training of skilled workers needed by the energy sector.

Approach

Market entry for RE and EE solutions
The strategic focus of the project is to overcome barriers to market entry and development which have so far prevented Ghana's private electricity consumers as well as businesses and households from making greater use of RE and EE.

The project provides training, advisory and other support services to strengthen the capacities of key market actors in order to enable companies to increasingly satisfy their energy needs through RE. 

In pursuit of the project’s objectives an Energy Service Centre has been established – hosted by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) – to serve as a connector between RE/EE service providers and potential clients.

To ensure a holistic development of the RE/EE sector, the project supports public utility companies to prepare for the transition of the energy sector, mainly caused by self-generation of electricity from RE and improvements in EE by their customers.

Technical and Vocational Educational Training (TVET)
Improving the framework conditions for the expansion of RE/EE in the productive sector of Ghana also includes TVET. It addresses the shortage of qualified RE and EE demand-oriented skilled workers (e.g. for the planning, installation, operation, maintenance and repair of RE systems and EE solutions).

The main deficits are insufficient involvement of industry in the development, implementation and examination of vocational training courses with a focus on RE and EE, as well as a deficit in personnel, institutional and cooperation capacities of vocational training providers.

In order to overcome the obstacles, the project firstly aims at getting the industry actively participating in the development, implementation and examination of vocational training courses with a RE/EE focus. For this, a Sector Skills Body will be established for the participation of sector stakeholders to advise on the development of vocational standards and curricula. Secondly, it will strengthen vocational training institutions and help establish new RE and EE training programmes.

Lastly, the project will develop approaches to ensure the successful transitions of school leavers, unemployed, self-employed or dependent employees into initial and continuing vocational training and in (self-) employment.

Results

The joint programme:

  • Facilitated the establishment of an Energy Service Centre, hosted by the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) in 2019. The service centre will establish and maintain an updated database and serves as an honest broker for advisory services on RE/EE investments. Additionally, the centre provides training programmes for solution providers 
  • Identifies successful reference projects for RE/EE awareness and promotion
  • Links major electricity consumers with RE/EE experts to assess and improve their electricity self-eneration capabilities or EE potential 
  • Collaborates with the utilities to develop new business strategies to prepare for a transition of losing large customers to self-generation
  • Established a Sector Skills Body for the RE sector
  • Initiated development of vocational standards, curricula and training material for an occupation in the field of RE
  • Selected three TVET institutions to improve their capacity for implementation of newly developed training material

Additional information