The plan is to enable the authority to develop and operate renewable energy plants in an efficient, cost-effective and environmentally sustainable manner.

This is in response to the global clarion call for a cohesive approach to confronting the challenges of climate change.

“Out of the government’s Renewable Energy Masterplan which targets 2,514 Megawatts of renewable by 2030, we want to take 20 per cent, accelerate it and do it by 2026,” the Chief Executive of the VRA, Emmanuel Antwi-Darkwa, said this at a VRA Creativity and Innovation roundtable which took place in Accra yesterday.

The discussion was part of activities towards the VRA Creativity and Innovation Day which is scheduled for April 26 this year.

Discussion

The panel also included the Chief Executive Officer, Phyto-Riker (GIHOC) Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Theresa Randolph and the Managing Director for the Absa Bank Ghana, Abena Osei-Poku.

They were speaking on the topic: “Culture of innovation- the imperatives.”

Less carbon footprint

Mr Antwi-Darkwa said the initiative was part of the company’s plan to contribute to the global effort at reducing carbon emissions.

“Globally, the aim is to have less carbon footprints and that’s essentially what we want to do and because of that we are coming up with a lot of innovation in the area of renewables, as well as  in the area of our own traditional plants, using natural gases,” he explained.

He said the authority aimed to introduce several innovations in the area of traditional plants, using natural gas and also bring more innovation into the transport industry.

“Electric vehicles are no longer things of the future and I believe that we will have our first electric vehicle at Akosombo and these are all part of the innovations we are bringing on board to reduce our carbon footprint,” he said.

Innovation

Touching more on innovation, he said it had always been part of the VRA, however, the challenge was that it had failed to institutionalise it to become part of its organisational culture.

He admitted that the world had changed and customers requested for power delivery more differently than they did some years ago.

Mr Antwi-Darkwa noted that the paradigm some years back was how utilities operated with safety, security, operational excellence, reliability among others.

The MD for Absa Ghana also agreed that creativity and innovation were the only means through which any company could maneuver its way through any difficulty.

For instance, she said the biggest element that sparked a culture of innovation in her company was the announcement that Barclays UK was pulling out of the Africa business.

“There was no engagement prior to that, we all heard it on the news.

Initially, there was some panic but very quickly, the leadership team got together and began working and brainstorming on how to survive the shock.

Through that, Ms Osei-Poku said the company was able to survive that test of time and even continue to flourish when the world was hit with the COVID-19 pandemic.