On a warm afternoon in a quaint town in the Upper East Region, Amina, a dedicated seamstress, finds herself unable to work in her shop due to an ongoing power outage that has persisted since morning. The familiar hum of her sewing machine is replaced by the voices of impatient customers inquiring about the status of their garments. With a resigned expression, she offers the same response she has repeated on countless occasions: “We are waiting for the light.”
This scenario reflects not just isolated discontent but highlights a significant broader narrative regarding the control of energy resources that power homes, businesses, and aspirations across Ghana. It prompts a crucial inquiry that is echoing throughout the community: what if local citizens had increased agency over the production, distribution, and pricing of energy? This inquiry sits at the heart of the concept of Energy Democracy.
Energy democracy advocates for enhanced citizen engagement and stakeholding within the energy system. This movement merges the desire for renewable energy with the principles of public participation and ownership. It challenges the conventional top-down framework where a select few companies and policymakers determine energy generation and distribution methodologies. Instead, it aspires to place authority, both literally and figuratively, into the hands of ordinary citizens. A clear example is the Yeboahkrom Living Lab, a collaboration between the TUM SEED Center, KNUST, and Juaben locals, funded by DAAD, which powers a school, lights the main road, and supports farming and businesses with 58 kWh of solar energy.
Why Energy Democracy is Important for Ghana
Ghana has made appreciable strides in enhancing electricity accessibility, with over 88.85% of the population connected to the grid as of 2024. Nevertheless, challenges surrounding reliability and costs persist. Many rural and peri-urban areas continue to confront extended outages, and high tariffs impose a financial burden on households and small enterprises.
Moreover, Ghana’s reliance on thermal plants fueled by imported oil and gas renders the nation susceptible to fluctuations in global prices and supply challenges. Concurrently, the impacts of climate change are being acutely felt across industries, underscoring the urgency for a transition to a cleaner and more sustainable energy framework.
Energy democracy presents a viable pathway to tackle these pressing challenges by marrying renewable energy advancements with greater citizen involvement. This approach can diminish reliance on expensive fossil fuels, enhance reliability, and ensure that the benefits of the energy transition are equitably shared across the population.
Policy Reform as a Catalyst for Change
Achieving energy democracy necessitates significant reforms in energy policies to foster a supportive environment for small-scale producers and community-led initiatives. Currently, the majority of electricity generation and distribution is overseen by key entities such as the Volta River Authority, Ghana Grid Company, and Electricity Company of Ghana. While these organizations play crucial roles, their dominance can limit meaningful participation from ordinary citizens and smaller enterprises.
A key reform involves establishing a transparent and appealing feed-in tariff system, which would ensure that households, educational institutions, and small businesses generating surplus electricity from solar panels or wind turbines can sell this energy back to the national grid at a fair and predictable rate. This tariff must be sufficiently attractive to encourage investments in renewable energy and remain stable over several years to provide sufficient confidence for these investments.
Furthermore, enhancing net metering reforms is essential for streamlining processes that allow energy producers to offset their usage and efficiently sell excess power to the grid without navigating cumbersome bureaucratic hurdles.
Policies should actively encourage community-owned renewable initiatives. For instance, the government might explore funding opportunities or provide low-interest loans for farming cooperatives interested in establishing solar farms to power irrigation systems while selling surplus energy to the grid. Regulatory frameworks can be put in place to guarantee that profits from such projects benefit local communities, thereby supporting schools, healthcare facilities, and additional energy initiatives.
Education plays a vital role in this transformation. The government can collaborate with educational institutions, local leaders, and community organizations to raise awareness about energy democracy, guiding citizens on how to initiate energy projects and informing them of their rights.
A Vision for Ghana’s Future
Imagine a fishing community in Elmina utilizing solar energy to preserve their catch for market distribution. This scenario is not mere aspirations; it represents attainable goals within the framework of energy democracy. Energy democracy offers an optimistic vision for Ghana’s future, fostering an energy landscape that is cleaner, more reliable, and inherently fairer. It empowers individuals and grants them a voice within the energy system. Rather than relying solely on external electricity sources, communities can develop their own solutions.
Article by
Benjamin Cobbinah
He has an MPhil from KNUST in Ghana, with research interests in Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Energies in the Global South. His work has been published in the Journal of Business Research. He advocates for Liberty and is a volunteer policy scholar at the YAFO Institute.
