By Rebekah Mintzer
25 May 2010 [MediaGlobal]: The small village of Oboadaka, Ghana, will have a very special opportunity this summer—the chance to watch the 2010 Football World Cup live on the big screen. Despite its location an hour from the capital city Accra, Oboadaka is not connected to the national electricity grid. Residents will watch the World Cup thanks to solar energy.
World Future Council (WFC) and partner Energiebau Sunergy Ghana will hold the screening. It will take place in conjunction with the installation of solar panels in Oboadaka’s medical clinic as well as “Power Kick for Africa,” a renewable energy workshop in Accra that is hoped to inspire stakeholders to continue to harness solar power.
Ansgar Kiene, Campaign Manager, Climate Energy Africa for the WFC told MediaGlobal that the screening of the World Cup in Obodaka along with adding solar power to the local clinic will help debunk common perception that renewable energies (RE) are less potent than polluting energies and cannot support heavy industry.
“By using this emotional event the decision makers get hands-on experience of the quality and capacity of RE,” Kiene said. “The more companies and private persons become electricity producers the more the society is protected from monopolistic electricity structures we still see in most African countries.”
The “Power Kick for Africa” workshop will engage members of the African Renewable Energy Alliance (AREA) in discussions about economic and environmental benefits of solar energy. AREA is a WFC initiated platform for businesspeople, politicians, civil society, and other stakeholders who are interested in renewable energy issues and formulating renewable energy policies.
“Not only Ghana, but the whole African continent is blessed with all sorts of renewable energies,” said Kiene. “Harvest them where they occur in a sustainable, participatory manner and diversify your energy sources to become more resilient to negative effects of climate change. The solar radiation Africa is receiving could make this continent easily the Saudi Arabia of the future.”
