Map of Power Generation Plants
Electricity Generation Trend
This graph illustrates the electricity generation trend in Ghana from 2010 to 2020. Apart from the slump around 2015 at the face of the energy crisis the country was facing at that time, the energy generated has seen constant growth from 10’166 Gigawatt hours in 2010 to more than double that in 2021. A GWh is unit of energy representing one-billion-watt hours. A watt hour is equal to the steady power of one watt running for one hour. To put that into perspective a fridge uses around 0.3 to 0.8 Kilowatt hours (= 300 to 800 watt hours) per day.
Grid Electricity Generation by Plant (GWh)
Hydropower used to be the main source of electric energy in Ghana, yet thermal power plants have become successively more important in that regard. Between 2015 and 2016, electricity generation by thermal power plants has for the first time overtaken hydropower and is still on the rise. Other renewables like solar or wind have also seen growth in recent years, however, compared to the other two sources their contribution to the total generation remains rather small. For 2021 other renewables accounted for only 0.55% of the total electricity generated. Although this represents almost a doubling of its 2020 share of 0.28%, renewable generation in Ghana is still negligible compared to hydropower and thermalpower, which contributed 34.1% and 65.3% respectively of the total electricity generation.
Installed Capacity Against Peak Load (MW)
This graph displays the installed capacity in megawatt opposed to the peak load in a given year. Installed capacity for that time period has seen an increase by 41% and the peak load even one of 49%. Still, installed capacity has constantly been higher than the peak load even during the energy crisis of 2015. Hence, technically the capacity to meet the demand for electrical power without shortages is present in Ghana.