KNUST researchers and industry stakeholders are urging Ghana to move beyond treating renewable energy solely as a means of expanding electricity access, arguing that it should also be used to create businesses, generate income and improve essential public services.
The call was made at the 2026 Annual Symposium at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), which focused on the theme “Sustainable Energies, Entrepreneurship and Development”.
Participants examined how sustainable energy technologies could be linked to productive activities and used to tackle practical challenges faced by communities across the country.
Prof. Francis Kemausuor, Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering at KNUST, said research carried out by the university was already showing how renewable energy could support local economic activity.
“Some of our members have been conducting research in these areas and we are here to discuss these research projects we have been conducting and look at how we can push the agenda forward with regards to using energy for productive services.
Using energy for activities that can provide income for people. So, for example, we have a solar mini grid system set up in a village called Yeboahkrom which is helping the people use their freezers to provide cold drinks, fish and meat to the community.
We have just finished installing a water system for them. The community didn’t have access to clean water but because of the solar mini grid we have, we have provided a pumping system that pumps water into an overhead storage tank and will provide drinking water to the people in the community. “
The Yeboahkrom project illustrates how access to reliable renewable energy can support both business and basic services. The solar mini-grid is being used to power freezers for the sale and storage of cold drinks, fish and meat, while the same system supplies energy for pumping water into an overhead tank.
Prof. Kemausuor said the opportunities were not limited to rural communities. Solar power is also being used to operate traffic lights at selected points on the KNUST campus, a development researchers believe could help reduce disruption at busy intersections during power outages.
Engineer Seth Mahu said he planned to engage the Minister for Energy and Green Transition about the university’s work. He also said he wanted to explore discussions with the KNUST research team over a possible pilot project.
“We are working with academic institutions like KNUST who have done some cutting edge research in the deployment of renewable energy to address traffic issues in the country and implement some of the findings they have made because academic industry must have some bearings on industry and one way to demonstrate that is to make sure that the discovery they’ve made in the use of solar energy to address traffic issues is brought to bear in partner with the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Roads and all the various stakeholders to implement some of these discoveries to enable us tackle these perculia issues,” he said.
The symposium placed particular emphasis on developing and applying renewable energy solutions rather than focusing only on generation and access.
Researchers and industry representatives said the technologies already available could contribute to entrepreneurship, community services and the reliability of important infrastructure if they were deployed effectively.
Their message was that Ghana’s renewable energy ambitions should be measured not only by how many people gain access to electricity, but also by how that energy is used to support livelihoods, encourage enterprise and address everyday public needs.
By Agbozo Darrell Worlanyo
