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Clean Energies for Ghana—An Empirical Study on the Level of Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy Development and Utilization

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  • Ephraim Bonah Agyekum

    (Department of Nuclear and Renewable Energy, Ural Federal University Named after the First President of Russia Boris Yeltsin 620002, 19 Mira Street, 60002 Ekaterinburg, Russia
    Department of Applied Physics, University for Development Studies, P.O. Box TL, Tamale 1350, Ghana)

  • Ernest Baba Ali

    (Department of Environmental Economics, Ural Federal University Named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, 19 Mira Street, 60002 Ekaterinburg, Russia)

  • Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar

    (School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong
    Afro InterGreen Energy Ltd., Wuse, 900285 Abuja, Nigeria)

Abstract

Despite the enormous renewable energy (RE) resources available in Ghana, the country has not seen much development and investments in the sector. Therefore, the government has committed to increasing the share of RE in the country’s electricity generation mix to some 10% by 2030. However, this cannot be achieved without the Ghanaian people’s support since the RE sector is capital intensive and requires both public and private sector participation. This study was conducted to evaluate RE’s social acceptance among Ghanaian people using the ordered logit regression model. A total of 999 valid questionnaires out of 1020 distributed questionnaires were considered for the study. The five-point Likert scale was employed to rank their willingness to accept (WTA) RE. From the results, it was observed that there is a general sense of acceptance of renewable energy among Ghanaians. However, the level of acceptance varies from one respondent to another. The study observed that a majority of the respondents (i.e., approximately 45.65%) agree to their WTA renewable energy, while 36.04% strongly agree. The results also indicate that while 6.21% and 0.3% disagree and strongly disagree, 11.81% of the respondents were indifferent regarding their willingness to accept renewable energy development and utilization in Ghana.

Suggested Citation

  • Ephraim Bonah Agyekum & Ernest Baba Ali & Nallapaneni Manoj Kumar, 2021. "Clean Energies for Ghana—An Empirical Study on the Level of Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy Development and Utilization," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-14, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:6:p:3114-:d:515590
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