Mainstream Renewable Power has signed an agreement worth US$525mn with Swiss wind farm developer NEK Umwelttechnik to buy 225MW Ayitepa Wind Farm in Ghana
Mainstream Renewable Power sources said that the company will operate and maintain the wind farm. The construction of the Ayitepa Wind Farm is currently in its final stages of development with all major permits secured, according to the company. Grid and offtake agreements are yet to be finalised, it added.
Located 40 km from Accra on the east coast of Ghana, the project is expected to start generating power early 2016. When fully operational, the Ayitepa Wind Farm will generate approximately 10 per cent of Ghana’s total electricity generation capacity, currently at 2,000MW.
Eddie O’Connor, CEO at Mainstream Renewable Power, said, “This wind farm is the ideal solution for Ghana because wind and solar power are the only proven technologies in the world, which can achieve the dual objectives of speed of deployment and scale. The Ayitepa Wind Farm can be generating electricity in less than 18 months from now. No other generation technology can match that in terms of speed of deployment.”
Christoph Kapp, CEO at NEK Umwelttechnik, added that the project will not only contribute to a sustainable, clean and independent production of electricity, but will also be accompanied by a lot of social benefits and improvements for the local population such as labour, better education, water supply and electrification for nearby villages and towns.
According to Wisdom Ahiataku-Togobo, director of renewable energy at the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum, Ghana, the project is consistent with government policy to increase the contribution of renewable energy in the electricity generation mix. He added the government has more than two years of bankable wind energy data along the south eastern corridor of the country where wind energy prospects are very encouraging.
