World Cup comes to Ghana via solar energy

Renewable power coming?

Football is truly the world game, and now for a group of electricity starved villagers in Oboadaka in Ghana, football fans will be able to watch matches from the World Cup on large screens, courtesy of solar power in an initiative called Power Kick for Africa.

Power Kick for Africa

Power Kick really is a triumph as it combines both the villagers love of the game, and stands to educate them about renewable energy and the opportunities it affords similar isolated communities.

The matches, from 11 June until 11 July - the duration of the 2010 Football World Cup will be powered by solar energy and comes in conjunction with a workshop on renewable energy policies for sustainable African development. The World Future Council (WFC) cooperation partner Energiebau Sunergy Ghana Ltd. is listed to install the solar panels.

These will power the public viewing and give the village community hospital permanent and reliable electricity supply, medication cooling and modern communication facilities.

Education on solar energy

Oboadaka, is a small village an hour away from Ghana's capital city Accra and has a population of 1000 people.  That won't be the end of the Power Kick reach as Oboadaka is surrounded by 26 smaller communities, counting to a total population of 6900.

The plan is to give hands-on experience to educate decision makers in politics, business, civil society and the media on the advantages of renewable energy for rural communities, to counter prejudices about renewable energies as niche technologies, and to celebrate the hand-over of the solar PV-system to the clinic of Oboadaka by Energiebau Sunergy Ghana.

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Nigeria gets first solar power campaign | Start with the sun - Renewables | Africa can become a renewable power house for the entire world | Time to shine

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