By Nelson Manneh
The Minister of Energy and Petroleum Fafa Sanyang, said Solar energy is the solution to affordable and clean energy.
Minister Sanyang made these comments to pressmen on Tuesday 8th September 2020, after the First World Solar Technology Summit (WSTS), which was organized virtually by the International Solar Alliance (ISA).
Minister Sanyang said the Gambia and other countries within Africa, have sunlight in abundance but are yet to enjoy solar technology as expected.
“Right now, we depend 100% on fossil fuel which is expensive because the tariff is high. The only way to reduce this is to expand power production with renewable energy,” he said. Energy Minister Sanyang said energy is part of the country’s GDP and Government’s road map strategic plan is to provide 40% of the country’s GDP by 2025; that the importance of solar energy cannot be measured.
On Policy:
Energy Minister Sanyang said the country has a national energy policy which emphasizes provision of renewable energy.
“These are actually policy directives that we are trying to reach, but we want to get at least 50-60% of it by 2030, in order to get international access not only for climate change purposes, but for affordability,” he said.
The Minister continued: “At the moment we are working with India and we have already sent some people for training and have also sent some proposals for some villages to be electrified.”
He said the level of solar energy which is contributing to the country’s energy consumption is less than 2%, saying this was why his Ministry has the ambitious plan of making the Gambia a renewable solar energy country; that the objective of the World Solar Technology Summit (WSTS) is to bring the spotlight on state-of-the-art technologies as well as next-generation technologies which will provide impetus to the growth and propagation of solar energy globally.
He said the Summit will provide a global platform for stakeholders to engage in innovations in technology that will catapult the world towards a high solar growth trajectory.
The Summit was addressed virtually by speakers including Fafa Sanyang; the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi; Nobel Laureates, Chief Executives of global Corporations and Heads of leading global institutions.
