1.What is renewables?
Energy resource that is naturally replenishing but variable in supply or flow-time. It is virtually inexhaustible in duration but limited in the amount of energy that is available per unit of time.

2. What are renewable energy resources?
Renewable energy resources include: biomass, hydro, geothermal, solar, wind, ocean thermal, wave action, and tidal action.

3. We have a lot of renewable energy in Ghana why are we not using it?
Renewable energy is a new form of energy that is still in its developmental stage in Ghana. Though there are abundant renewable energy resources like solar energy in Ghana, the rate of development is a bit sluggish. The Ministry of Energy and the Energy Commission have installed solar PV systems in off-grid communities in the Northern, Eastern and Volta regions of Ghana. Wind Energy resource assessment has also been carried out to ascertain the wind speeds in the country. Biogas has also been extensively developed for power generation, cooking and as organic manure.

4. Why is solar panel so expensive?
The energy source is free but there is a lot of work done in fabricating solar PV systems. For example, the silicon used for the monocrystalline and polycrystalline solar PV systems are the same silicon used for electronic systems and that makes it expensive.

5. Is there enough wind potential to generate electricity in Ghana?
Yes! We have enough wind potential to generate wind energy in Ghana. The wind speeds are high along the coastal belt, Volta and Central regions. Wind assessment data has been collated and analysed in the above mentioned areas. The speed is 3-5m/s. There are low wind speed turbines that can be installed to operate efficiently at these speeds in Ghana.

6. Can electricity generated from human waste (Biogas) kill?
Yes! Electricity generated from human waste can kill. Just like any other electricity generated from other sources like hydro, nuclear etc. It will kill you depending on the amount of current that passes through your body.

7. Is charcoal renewable energy?
Charcoal in any way or form is not considered as a renewable energy source. Charcoal processing is not environmentally friendly and it does not replenish
itself. Charcoal processing can create deforestation, desertification, and emission of smoke that can create health problems. The burning of charcoal for cooking/heating produces a lot of ashes.

8. There is a lot of solar energy, why can’t we generate all our power from solar?
The solar energy generation is in its developmental stage and though we have a lot of sun light, the power from solar is very expensive; it is limited by duration and time of year. A lot of land area is required for generating large quantity of power, solar is variable.

9. Can I use only solar energy in my house?
Yes, you can if you can afford it because the initial cost is very expensive. Solar also produce direct current instead of alternating current and fridges and other electronic gadgets should be converted to DC or inverters should be used which will escalate the initial cost of the systems.

10. How long will the solar panels last?
The solar panels will last for a period of 25-30 years but the balance of systems such as batteries and ballast need to be changed in every 5-7 years. If good solar bulbs are used they can also last for about 5 years.

11. How often do I have to do maintenance?
Solar and wind power generation are virtually maintenance free.

12. What do I do with the batteries when they run down?
The problem we are facing currently is the disposal and recycling of used batteries and other balance of systems of solar systems. Regulations will be put in place to address these problems by the time most batteries reach their sell by dates.

13. Can I use electricity and gas from human waste and cow dung to cook my meals?
Yes! You can definitely use electricity and gas from human waste and cow dung and any other biomass or bio-fuel energy to cook your meals. This was one of the major problems we faced when biogas was introduced as fuel for cooking and lighting at Appolonia, a village near Tema. Beneficiaries thought it unhygienic to use gas from human waste for cooking and a lot of educational campaigns were carried out to eradicate that fear.

14. Why can’t we use jatropha as a source of fuel to fuel our cars?
Jatropha can be used to fuel cars and there are other biofuel sources that can also be used. There are small scale industries in the country that extract bio-diesel from jatropha as both crude and refined diesel. They have been tried in both cars and kerosene lanterns but a lot of research is going on to confirm efficacy of it.

1. Who is a bulk Customer of Electric Power?
2. What are regulated and deregulated power markets?
3. What is West African Power Pool (WAPP)?
4. What are the source of electricity
5. What is Hydroelectric Power (H.E.P)
   
   

1. Bulk Customer of Electric Power
A bulk customer of electric power is any customer of electric power whose annual demand and consumption are 3 MVA and 6 GWh respectively over a period of three years. If one qualifies, application is made to the Energy Commission for one to be classified.

2. Regulated and deregulated Markets.
The power market in Ghana is divided into two; regulated and deregulated markets. The regulated market is made up of all customers who are not bulk customers of electricity. The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC) regulates prices of this type of market. The deregulated market is made up of bulk customers who have the opportunity of negotiating prices of power with power producers directly without the PURC.

3. West Africa Power Pool (WAPP)
The West Africa Power Pool is an arrangement to interconnect the electricity network of all the West African states to facilitate power exchange.

4. Hydroelectric Power
Hydroelectric power units use flowing water to spin a turbine connected to a generator. In a falling water system, water is accumulated in reservoirs created by dams, then released through conduits to apply pressure against the turbine blades to drive the generator. In a run-of-the-river system, the force of the river current applies the pressure to the turbine blades to produce electricity. Ghana has a hydroelectric power plant at Akosombo in the Eastern region with a capacity of 1020 MW

5. Source of electricity
Electricity can be produced from many sources. These include fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and petroleum), uranium, and renewable fuels (water, geothermal, wind, and other renewable energy sources).

Steam-electric generating units burn fossil fuels, such as coal, natural gas, and petroleum. The steam turns a turbine that produces electricity through an electrical generator. Natural gas and petroleum are also burned in gas turbine generators where the hot gases produced from combustion are used to turn the turbine, which, and in turn, spins the generator to produce electricity. Additionally, petroleum is burned in generating units with internal-combustion engines. The combustion occurs inside cylinders of the engine, which is connected to the shaft of the generator. The mechanical energy provided from the engine drives the generator to produce energy.

1. What is natural gas?
2. What are the sources of natural gas?
3. What are the uses of natural gas?
4. Is Natural Gas Safe?
5. Does the use of natural gas affect the environment?
6. Does production of natural gas affect the environment?
7. How is natural gas transported?
8. How is natural gas stored?

1. What are the Sources of Natural Gas?

Natural Gas is a vital component of the world's supply of energy. It is one of the cleanest, safest, and most useful of all energy sources. Natural gas is a hydrocarbon, which means it is made up of compounds of hydrogen and carbon. The simplest hydrocarbon is methane; it contains one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms. Natural gas can be found by itself or in association with oil. It is both colourless and odourless and is in fact a mixture of hydrocarbons. While mainly methane, the other hydrocarbons include ethane, propane, and butane. Water, oil, sulphur, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and other impurities may be mixed with the gas when it comes out of the ground.

These impurities are removed before the natural gas is delivered to our homes and businesses.
Natural gas is considered 'dry' when it is almost pure methane, having had most of the other commonly associated hydrocarbons removed. When other hydrocarbons are present, the natural gas is 'wet'. Natural gas can be measured in a variety of ways, although the most common unit of measurement is the Gigajoule (GJ), which signifies one billion joules, the metric measure for heat or energy. Other measures are Mcf (thousand cubic feet) and Btu (British thermal unit).

2. What are the Sources of Natural Gas?

Natural gas is a fossil fuel. This means it originates from the remains of plants and animals that lived many millions of years ago. These organisms were buried and exposed to heat as a result of being highly compressed underneath thousands of meters of soil and rock. These forces transformed the once living organisms into natural gas. Natural gas is found in reservoirs beneath the surface of the earth. Large layers of rock trap the natural gas as it tries to float to the surface. Although the areas where the gas is trapped are referred to as pools, the natural gas molecules are actually held in small holes and cracks throughout the rock formation.

Once removed from an underground reservoir, the natural gas is usually transferred to a gas processing plant to remove impurities and by-products. Some of these by-products, including ethane, propane, butane, and sulphur, are extracted for other uses. After being processed, the clean natural gas (almost pure methane) is transported through a network of pipelines and delivered to its point of use, including our homes.

3. What are the Uses of Natural Gas?

Users of natural gas are often classified into three categories - residential, commercial, and industrial;

Residential

We require energy on a constant basis to heat our water, cook our food, warm our homes, and generate our electricity. The most common use for natural gas around the home is for furnaces and hot water tanks. Natural gas can also be used to operate various household appliances, including stoves, clothes dryers, fireplaces, and barbecues. Through the use of natural gas, we can be sure our homes are operating efficiently, safely and economically.

Commercial

Schools, office buildings, hotels, restaurants and many other commercial enterprises use natural gas. As with residences, these enterprises use the gas mainly for heating, cooling, and cooking. Large commercial enterprises are also beginning to use natural gas for on-site electricity generation as an economical alternative to purchasing electricity off-site.

Industrial

It has numerous uses in the petroleum refining, metal, chemical, plastic, food processing, glass and paper industries. The ingredients for plastic, anti-freeze, fertilizer, and fabric products are formed through the use of natural gas by-products. The fact that natural gas is one of the cleanest, cheapest, and most efficient sources of energy makes it easy to see why it is so commonly used.

4. Is Natural Gas safe?

Natural gas, when used properly, is a safe and convenient energy source. The natural gas industry is highly regulated to ensure the safe design, construction, operation and maintenance of natural gas pipelines and distribution systems.
An important safety feature for residential and commercial natural gas is the addition of an odorant so people can detect it by smell. Natural gas is neither poisonous nor harmful if inhaled for short periods; because it is lighter than air, it also quickly disperses if it leaks in an open space. However, natural gas is highly flammable. If mixed with air in small concentrations (approximately 5-15 per cent), it ignites easily; if there is a build-up of gas in an enclosed space, an explosion can occur.

Gas lines can leak or rupture if construction, posthole digging or other activity cuts these lines. As such, it is important that these facilities be located before doing any activity that creates a ground disturbance.

5. Does the Use of Natural Gas Affect the Environment?

Natural gas is the cleanest-burning fossil fuel; complete combustion produces mainly water vapour and carbon dioxide. The amount of greenhouse gas released from natural gas is significantly lower than emissions from wood, coal and oil. When natural gas replaces these other fuels, emissions of greenhouse gases are reduced as much as 50 percent.

The methane in natural gas is itself a greenhouse gas and is more potent, per tone, than carbon dioxide; however, the actual methane releases in the natural gas industry are small, less than one per cent of all the methane handled by the industry. About 80 per cent of the
greenhouse gas emissions from the use of natural gas occur at the final destination, the 'burner tip

6. Does Production of Natural Gas Affect the Environment?

Exploration activities, processing facilities and pipelines can have significant effects on the environment in areas where natural gas is produced. The largest impact results from processing gas to render the raw gas acceptable for pipeline transportation to markets. Processing removes carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, natural gas liquids and water vapour. Processing facilities use energy and may also release volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Other concerns arising from natural gas production include sour gas odours, groundwater contamination, waste management, land use, and wildlife habitat in producing areas.

7. How is Natural Gas Transported?

The transportation of natural gas from a gas well to our homes and businesses requires an extensive network of interconnected pipelines, designed to move natural gas quickly and effectively, sometimes over great distances. The pipeline system moves the natural gas from the point of origin to areas of high consumer demand. There are essentially three main types of transportation pipelines: gathering pipelines, transmission pipelines, and distribution pipelines. Gathering pipelines transport raw natural gas directly from the wellhead to the gas processing plant.

From the gas processing plant, the highly pressurized natural gas is gathered into increasingly larger pipelines, almost always underground, until it reaches the large transmission pipelines where it is often transported over large distances. From the transmission pipelines, the gas flows into a low-pressure distribution system. As a safety precaution, utility companies add an odorant to the gas (so one can smell it in the unlikely event of a leak) and then send it to us through a network of smaller pipelines.

To complete its long journey, the natural gas must go through a device called a regulator to decrease the pressure even further so it is safe to enter our homes. The gas travels through meters to measure the amount of gas we consume. Now that it has finished its incredible journey of being extracted, gathered, processed, transported and distributed, the natural gas is finally ready to be put to good use.

8. How is Natural Gas Stored?

Natural gas, like most other commodities, can be stored for an indefinite period of time. The exploration, production, and transportation of natural gas takes time, and the natural gas that reaches its destination is not always needed right away, so it is injected into underground storage facilities. These storage facilities can be located near market centers that do not have a ready supply of locally produced natural gas. Natural gas storage plays a vital role in maintaining the reliability of supply needed to meet the demands of consumers.

There are basically two uses for natural gas in storage facilities: meeting base load requirements, and meeting peak load requirements. As mentioned, natural gas storage is required for two reasons: meeting seasonal demand requirements, and as insurance against unforeseen supply disruptions. Base load storage capacity is used to meet seasonal demand increases. Base load facilities are capable of holding enough natural gas to satisfy long term seasonal demand requirements.

Peak load storage facilities, on the other hand, are designed to have high-deliverability for short periods of time, meaning natural gas can be withdrawn from storage quickly should the need arise. Peak load facilities are intended to meet sudden, short-term demand increases. These facilities cannot hold as much natural gas as base load facilities; however, they can deliver smaller amounts of gas more quickly, and can also be replenished in a shorter amount of time than base load facilities. While base load facilities have long term injection and withdrawal seasons, turning over the natural gas in the facility about once per year, peak load facilities can have turn over rates as short as a few days or weeks. Salt caverns are the most common type of peak load storage facility, although aquifers may be used to meet these demands as well.

Natural gas is usually stored underground, in large storage reservoirs. There are three main types of underground storage: depleted gas reservoirs, aquifers, and salt caverns. In addition to underground storage, however, natural gas can be stored as liquefied natural gas (LNG). LNG allows natural gas to be shipped and stored in liquid form, meaning it takes up much less space than gaseous natural gas.