Ghana will build a fully state-owned 1,450-megawatt (MW) thermal power plant in the Central Region, with construction starting in December 2026, and a 600MW state-owned solar plant backed by 2,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of battery storage, Finance Minister Dr Cassiel Ato Forson told Parliament on Thursday 12 November 2026 while presenting the 2027 Budget, Citi Newsroom reported.
He said the government would not borrow to build the thermal plant.
The aim is to phase out all emergency power plants by December 2030 and end the roughly US$1.4 billion of public money spent each year covering energy-sector shortfalls, while bringing the cost of generation down from about 16 US cents per kilowatt-hour to 8 cents or less, the Ghana News Agency reported.
The plan in numbers
- Thermal plant: 1,450MW at Ekafudzidzi (Citi Newsroom; 3News gives Kafodzidzi-Abrobeano), Central Region. The first 600MW is due by December 2028 and the remaining 850MW by December 2030. It will need about 150 million standard cubic feet of gas a day from the Sankofa and Jubilee fields.
- Solar: 600MW, fully state-owned, with 2,000MWh of battery storage to shift daytime output to peak hours.
- Transmission: US$500 million from 2027 to 2030 to modernise the grid, cut losses and strengthen the north–south corridor.
- Distribution: two million prepaid meters, and performance-based private-sector participation in electricity distribution fully in place by the end of 2027.
- Arrears: the 2027 Budget sets aside GHS 13.9 billion to clear arrears, including GHS 4.3 billion owed to independent power producers, according to 3News.
StatsGH check: 600MW plus 850MW gives the 1,450MW total. Halving generation costs from about 16 cents to 8 cents per kWh is a cut of 50% or more.
Context
Energy is one of the eight pillars of the government's US$10 billion New Economy programme for 2027–2030. Outlets put the energy pillar at US$2.2 billion (3News budget summary) or US$2 billion (3News pillar report), and the Budget Statement document needed to settle the figure had not been posted on the Ministry of Finance website when StatsGH checked at 22:00 Europe/London.
During the speech the Minister also gave the 2025 energy-sector shortfall as US$1.5 billion, according to GNA's live coverage, compared with the US$1.4 billion annual figure used for the 2030 target.
GNA noted that Energy Minister Dr John Abdulai Jinapor said in May 2025 that Ghana owed independent power producers more than US$1.7 billion, and that the government later paid about US$1.47 billion in legacy energy-sector debts. 3News reported the Minister citing the April fire that stranded Akosombo's 1,020MW among this year's shocks.
A separate US$200 million nuclear-readiness programme runs from January 2027 to December 2028.
The completion dates and cost figures are government targets. Related: 2027 Budget: US$10 billion New Economy programme.