Ghana should be energy sufficient with biofuel: the eucalyptus example 

Obviously,  one of the tows on the economy of Ghana  (formerly Gold Coast) is the energy insufficiency. This makes the start-up of businesses expensive. The talks of renewable energy sources and biofuels have always been on the drawing board and one hardly sees the progress made in that regard. Is it because we don’t look hard enough?

I was travelling from Atebubu to Kwame Danso between Garadima and Bantama in the Brong Ahafo Region when a huge plantation caught my attention. Upon enquiring, I found that the plantation was made by the African Plantation for Sustainable Development (APSD) and that huge plantation was Eucalyptus covering over 30,000 acres of land. The plantation is one of the few species of the plant found to do well in the tropical region and for that matter in Ghana aside Brazil. There are other species of the plant that have been successfully introduced outside Australia in Ethiopia, South Africa, Madagascar and Zimbabwe. This means that Ghana is so far the only West African country to join the league of nations in West Africa and in the tropics to have the famous plant.

A simple search on the plant revealed a lot of benefits that could be derived from the eucalypt. This ranged from being fast-growing sources of wood, producing oil that can be used for cleaning and as a natural insecticide, or an ability to be used to drain swamps and thereby reduce the risk of malaria. Eucalyptus oil finds many uses like in fuels, fragrances, insect repellance and antimicrobial activity. 

One also will have to be mindful of its allelopathic effects on the environment.

The professional I met during my visit to the plantation told me of the vision of the investment in the plantation. The focus is to build a plant that will produce electricity up to 60 megawatts with the plant as the fuel. This I learnt is enough to supply more than half of the energy needs of Brong Ahafo Region (the second largest region in Ghana). The potentials in the plant for other uses have not been exploited yet apart from the source of electricity.

It is my wish that the difficulty the project is facing with regards to the contracts that need to be signed with government is dealt with in a timely manner to keep the interest of the investors in the project. The project has over-shot its timelines and further delays would cause huge loss as I was told.

I am optimistic that if we plan well, the proceeds from this venture will be enormous for even generations to come.

All should take interest to make this work as the plantation could be a potential source to balance carbons introduced into the environment. It is also my wish that all cost-benefit analysis and due diligence are done to make sure that Ghana benefits from this venture.