Last edited: February 2019

The Ghanaian government actively promotes renewable energy. Their goal is to increase the percentage of renewable energy in the energy mix of the country, as written in the Renewable Energy Act. This means the promotion is not just for solar, but for other renewable sources as well, like biomass, water and wind energy. There are several programs and initiatives in place to enhance the subsidies for solar in Ghana. Besides the government subsidizing the solar sector, there are also other ways to finance (new) solar initiatives. For more information on (international) organisations who give out funds and grants, take a look at our NGOs in Ghana page.

Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL)

This worldwide sustainable energy initiative comes from the United Nations and consists of three objectives. Firstly the ensurement of universal access to modern energy services. Secondly, trying to double the rate of energy efficiency and thirdly doubling the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. For Ghana, a there is a special Action Plan (SE4ALL Action Plan). Furthermore, the five most important impact opportunities were identified:

  • The adoption of clean cooking solutions
  • Off-grid lighting and charging
  • Sustainable energy for Islands
  • Clean energy mini-grids
  • Productive uses of electricity

GEDAP

The Ghana Energy Development and Access Project (GEDAP) is part of the SE4ALL Action Plan. It is a multi-donor funding project to support Ghana in the electricity efficiency of the distribution system and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Some of the donors of this project are the International Development Agency (IDA), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Africa Catalytic Growth Fund (ACGF).

Renewable Energy Fund

The Renewable Energy Act mentioned before established the Renewable Energy Fund. This Fund provides financial resources for the promotion, development, management and utilization of renewable energy sources. These sources include grid, off-grid and mini-grid sources and renewable energy projects that do not have an electricity purpose. Moreover, the applications for the money from the fund are very broad and includes the promotion of research, production, innovations and an infrastructure for renewable energy.

Scaling-up Renewable Energy Program (SREP)

Besides the installment of the Renewable Energy Fund, the Ghanaian government also installed the Scaling-up Renewable Energy Program in 2015. This program means to unlock financing opportunities which can accelerate the development of renewable energy. Due to this, they focus on three main projects:

  1. Renewable energy mini-grids and stand-alone solar PV systems
  2. Solar PV based net metering with battery storage
  3. Utility-scale solar PV and wind power generation

Duty and VAT exemptions

The government also support the solar sector by exempt duties and VAT, which is similar to subsidies for solar in Ghana. Firstly, all imported solar panels into Ghana are VAT free. As for import duty, industrial/energy plant, machinery or equipment have an exempt. And lastly, all off-grid solar system components benefit from VAT exemptions.

Feed-in Tariff

Besides all the financial benefits mentioned above, the Feed-in-Tariff could also be beneficial to your project like a subsidies for solar in Ghana can. It is a part of the Renewable Energy Act and gives renewable energy a guaranteed higher purchase rate in Ghana. More on this rate here.