Ghana’s power sector continues to face difficulties in closing its supply shortfall; energy efficiency solutions provide an immediate step to fixing this problem, and could save the country millions annually.
Main applications:
Lighting, Appliances, HVAC, Energy Efficient Manufacturing, Transmission & Distribution, Clean Cook Stoves and Fuels
Ponaa Briquettes started in 2015 as Clean Coal Company and manufactures charcoal briquettes to serve households and commercial customers within Tamale and its
environs. It manufactures briquettes from rice husks using cassava starch as a binder. Ponaa Briquettes has 6 employees. By turning agricultural waste into usable fuels, i.e., briquettes, Ponaa reduces the need to cut down trees for firewood and charcoal which helps to reduce carbon emissions and allows for the standing trees to as carbon sinks.
Established in the year 2000, Yooyili Enterprise is located at Ashaiman and manufactures clean cookstoves for individual households. It produces on the average 9,000 cookstoves in a month and currently has 22 employees. As explained earlier, clean cookstoves reduces emissions efficiently burning biomass and which helps to prevent deforestation.
Guaras Enterprise is located at Ofankor and is into clean cooking stove manufacturing. It was established in 2005 and currently has 16 employees. The business manufactures institutional improved cook stoves for senior high schools and individual households and currently produces 500 cookstove per month. Clean cookstoves reduces emissions efficiently burning biomass and which helps to prevent deforestation.
Sterudan is an energy efficient business that is into the manufacturing of improved cookstoves. These improved cookstoves reduce charcoal usage by 50% compared with ordinary cookstove resulting in low consumption of wood for cooking. The enterprise currently produces for some Ministries in Ghana and sells in the open market. With a production capacity of 350-400 low cost cookstoves per week, the business offsets carbon and improves forest conservation which is crucial for sustenance of living organisms.
Further, through innovative ideas, STERUDAN plans to develop new models of stoves and
other products soon.
Upon joining the incubator, GCIC with be supporting the business to scale through the acquisition of factory production floor machinery among other benefits.
ENG Solutions is an energy efficient business that is into the manufacturing of improved cookstoves. The cookstoves manufactured by ENG Solutions positively impact the environment by reducing air pollution and reducing deforestation.
These results in high carbon sequestration. GCIC will be supporting ENG Solutions to enhance and scale its production through the provision of technical support services, offer testing opportunities, acquisition of machines and business support services. Also, through the incubator, the business aims to minimize its negative impacts on the environment and become more sustainable.
Booomers International produces high quality, affordable bamboo products which have both economic and social benefits to customers around the world. Booomers has produced more than 2,500 frames and thousands of bamboo accessories, from bicycle baskets to children’s tricycles. Booomers cultivates and manages bamboo plantations which serve as reliable avenues for carbon capture.
Bamboo bicycles as substitute to the traditional metallic bicycles reduces energy required to produce metals and by extension carbon emissions. Additionally, this alternative reduces the use of fossil-based transportations across the country.
GCIC will be assisting Booomers with product development support in prototyping, testing, and deployment of a new product line of “bamboo electric cargo bike” to help meet its customers’ request of ability of bamboo bikes to carry loads while riding.
Bismark Asamoah Asante is an entrepreneur and the founder of Nasam Brand Enterprise. He is a member of the Ghana Alliance for Clean Cooking (GHACCO). His company has received several awards including being named the overall winner for the National Best Improved Woodstove for Household Challenge in 2018.
NASAM Brand Enterprise was founded by Bismark Asamoah Asante in the year 2015. Nasam has its production site at Cape coast near Adisadel and a sales shop at Kasoa opposite the ADB Bank. Nasam enterprise is a Ghanaian clean stove manufacturer which designs and manufactures clean wood stoves, gas stoves and charcoal powered cookstoves for urban and rural households in Ghana and the rest of Africa. Nasam’s product line consists of Obaa Hemaa Special woodstove, gas stoves, coal pots, grilled stoves and ovens.
Elizabeth Bayo is a highly motivated businesswoman with over 25 years experience in the diverse field of businesses mainly rice & poultry feed marketing, palm oil, vegetable farming, biomass fuel production. She is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Nasag – Lach Company Limited – is a woman-led social-enterprise based in the Volta Region of Ghana that produces rice husk briquette from agro-waste as a sustainable fuel for cooking in households and industrial boilers. The company uses an inclusive business model and give back to community by working with youth, women processors and rice farmers in the local communities to collect the rice husk from farms to its processing site in Adidome to produce briquette and also help us to supply to rural households on commission basis creating employment along the value chain. Elizabeth Bayo is a good communicator with strong negotiation skills, outstanding problem-solving abilities. She aggressively identifies opportunities, develops focus, and provides tactical business solutions to achieve results at the optimal level.
Nasag- Lach Company Limited produces rice husk briquette from agro-waste as a sustainable fuel for cooking in households and industrial boilers. We use an inclusive business model and give back to the community by working with youth, women processors and rice farmers in the local communities to collect the rice husk from farms to our processing site in Adidome to produce the briquette and also help us to supply to rural households on commission basis creating employment along the value chain. Our rice husk briquette both carbonized and non-carbonized provide alternative environmentally friendly fuel for households and industries and enhances energy access. Recycling of rice husk into briquettes reduces open-air pollution from burning of rice husk – our rice husk ensures that the husk is not burnt but rather reused for economic purposes. Our rice husk briquette provides long burning fuel due to its high quality and density for end-users. Our rice husk briquettes provide affordability to existing fuel prices in the market for end-users. Our rice husk briquette Business also reduces death as a result of indoor air pollution from cooking with firewood – our fuelwood is a clean-burning stove. Our rice husk briquette reduces greenhouse gas emissions and climate change – by preventing the raw rice husk from being burnt in the open air to affect the ozone layer, but are recycled for reuse in cooking and industrial boiling. Our rice husk briquette also provides employment for youth and women in our community due to our inclusive business models
Ms. Grace Abachie holds a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) Degree in Economics from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and a Bachelor of Arts Degree Integrated Development Studies in (Economics and Entrepreneurship Development Option) from the University for Development Studies. Ms. Grace Abachie has a special interest in research where she is interested in researching pertinent issues affecting the world in contemporary times. This motivated her to write her thesis on: The Effects of Climate Variability on Electricity Consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Wen-Neon Company Ltd. is a biofuel company that converts biowaste into alternative source of cooking fuel called Biomass Briquettes located in Fumbisi, Upper East Region. It provides rural folks with access to sustainable and economically viable alternative source of cooking fuel. This improves sanitation, reduces methane emissions from landfills, refuse dams hence abate greenhouse gas emissions and reduce deforestation through the substitution of traditional fuels such as firewood and charcoal with an efficient alternative – Biomass Briquettes. In the long run, Wen-Neon envisages scaling its scope up to serve the entire country and to export internationally.
Prince Nana Kow Essel, an electrical and electronic engineer from the University of Mines and Technology is a multiple award-winning Schneider Electric trained Energy Access Entrepreneur and an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Energy Generation Academy, Lomé.
Awards won includes; Africa Energy Generation Prize 2016 in Lomé, Togo, Africa Energy Ideas Competition in Lagos, Nigeria and “MakeInAfrica” International Contest in Rome, Italy.
BioGreen Energy, a Ghanaian for-profit social inclusive business that develops manufactures and distributes climate-smart and reliable Ethanol fuel gel solutions from molasses, sugarcane bagasse and other agro-waste in a trademarked label “Adepa EcoGel”.
Adepa EcoGel is a clean and climate-smart energy for domestic cooking, it is a smokeless fuel which burns 3 times longer than traditional fuel source for cooking. And it is used in specially designed user-friendly enamel coated aluminum stove of high quality. The fuel gel has citronella, a mosquito repelling additive, included which repels mosquitoes while cooking.
Lovans Owusu-Takyi is a social entrepreneur, environmentalist and sustainable development professional with about 15 years’ experience in education, agriculture, renewable energy, market development, agroforestry and climate change initiatives in Ghana and Africa. Lovans’ has a passion for developing and deploying innovative climate-smart solutions for energy, environmental and agricultural challenges with a focus on low-income households, small enterprises and communities in Ghana. He has broad and diverse academic background including Post graduate studies in Agriculture, Education and Public Administration in 3 Ghanaian Universities as well as a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Political Science at the University of Ghana. He has also undertaken courses in Biogas, Solar installation and Renewable Energy Technologies at the Energy Center of KNUST as well as ecovillage, bioenergy and permaculture courses in Germany, Denmark, and Scotland. He is currently the co-founder, initiator and Director of the Institute for Sustainable Energy and Environmental Solutions (ISEES) and Sustainable Energy Technologies Limited, social enterprises committed to developing and promoting innovative climate-smart energy and environmental technologies for households, SMEs and communities in Ghana and Africa.
Sustainable Energy Technologies Limited (SETECH) is a social enterprise committed to developing and promoting climate smart, innovative and environmentally friendly technological solutions that improves the well-being of households, communities as well as improves the efficiency of small holder agro-enterprises in Ghana and Africa to meet their energy and environmental challenges. SETECH also develops inclusive business and marketing models that enhances access to climate smart energy and environmental technologies to targeted end-users. SETECH seeks to reduce energy expenditure, deforestation, indoor air pollution through the promotion of climate-smart technologies to improve the livelihoods, environment and ecosystem of households and communities in Ghana and Africa. Learn more at www.setechghana.com.
Joseph Sowatey Komey is the CEO of Synergy Recycle and Waste Management Ltd. He is a strong advocate for renewable energy as it is the sustainable clean form of energy to be deployed.
Synergy Recycle and waste management is a young and dynamic company specializing in processing a wood pellets for cooking purposes. The company is located in Takoradi. Wood waste, which is Synergy’s raw material, is collected from timber and local wood processing centres and is converted into wood pellets. These wood pellets have a better burning characteristic as compared to firewood used by locals.
Sulley Amin Abubakar is the founder of Zaacoal, a green waste to energy business. Amin is a very curious social entrepreneur with extensive community-based research and development skills. Certainly, an unconventional self-starter, Sulley Amin is the man on a mission; a rising Ghanaian entrepreneur, creating affordable green energy for impact. With an eye for detail, he’s keen to make something out of nothing.
Zaacoal is an innovative Ghanaian company that produces clean burning and efficient charcoal from Coconut waste. The company is focused on contributing greatly to curbing deforestation, pollution, global warming and other health issues facing Ghana and other African countries. Zaacoal solves this and puts its society on the right path of achieving a cleaner society through the innovative production of charcoal briquettes from environmental waste (coconut husks and shell).
Charles Boatin is the CEO and co-founder of Arela Chemicals. He spent over four years at the Boston Consulting Group as a management consultant, developing skills in business strategy development, operations, performance management, organization and industry specific topics from project experience in the US, Europe and Africa. Previously, he worked as an engineer at Applied Materials, providing project design, startup and execution and management and engineering support within the semiconductor industry. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Arela Chemicals is a waste-to-chemicals company that produces food grade carbon dioxide for bottlers of carbonated beverages. Their technology convert agricultural residues into high purity carbon dioxide and compressed natural gas which is used to generate enough electricity onsite to power the entire manufacturing plant. This production strategy reduces the input cost for beverage makers while reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with current methods of carbon dioxide production and electricity generation. The siting of the manufacturing plant in the Asante Akim North District, will benefit local farmers by supplying them with nutrient-rich organic fertilizer that increases their crop yield and farming revenue.
Gloria Asare Adu is the founder and owner of Global Bamboo Products Limited (GBPL). Her dream in Bamboo and rattan business started 12 years ago. She holds a diploma in Agribusiness Management at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) Ghana and has gained experience in business management through her work life over the years. Gloria has undertaken various courses and been on different workshops. One of such workshops led to the establishment of GBPL, which has pioneered the development of bamboo and other non-timber forest products in Ghana. She enjoys gardening, and dancing at her leisure times.
Global Bamboo Products Limited (GBPL) is a hybrid social enterprise in the development of Bamboo and other non-timber forest products (NTFP) providing a substitute for traditional timber products. GBPL’S main focus of business is the cultivation of bamboo and processing of bamboo into products such as bamboo charcoal and briquettes, construction for housing and furnishing, and crafts. The other arm of the enterprise involves skills training, agro forestry and other sustainable alternative livelihood activities.
Emmanuel Asaam has worked in different industries with notable companies such as Stanbic Bank Ghana, Vivo Energy (Shell) Ghana Limited and Scangroup Limited (where he managed projects both for Coca-Cola and Vodafone). Emmanuel is a results-driven individual with strong critical thinking and analytical skills. He has a good track record of coming up with creative procedures and system processes which are efficient and effective in getting jobs completed with excellence. He started Gamma Energie since 2015.
Gamma Energie’s goal is to contribute positively towards the Green Climate Change industry by providing clean and affordable energy solutions to local communities. They aim to achieve their objectives goals by implementing different projects guided by the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s); these projects cover themes such as Energy Efficiency, Biomass & Renewable Resources, Waste Management & Sanitation. Their project titled “Waste-to-Energy: Clean Burn Briquettes” involves recycling and selling affordable charcoal briquettes from agricultural waste such as cocoa pod husk, palm kernel shells, corn stalk, coconut shell & husk as well as wood waste (saw dust), charcoal dust and other environmentally sustainable biomass resources. Gamma Energie’s Clean-Burn Briquettes are a cheaper and safer alternative to environmentally detrimental cooking and heating fuels such as wood-charcoal, firewood and kerosene.
Seth Quansah is the co-founder and managing director/CEO of Alchemy Alternative Energy (AAE). Seth has over 10 years of business leadership, strategy, and management experience. Prior to AAE, Seth co-founded and led several companies and organizations in the United States and Ghana including RAD-AID International (global radiology program), Zuri-neo LLC (diversified socially-oriented businesses), and Coderina (robotic engineering organization). His sectors of experience spans across social entrepreneurship, medicine, and health technologies. His vision is to address and meet the energy demands in the sub-Sahara African region through his work.
Alchemy Alternative Energy is a waste management company that converts waste from plastics and tires – through internationally approved and environmentally sound processes – into hydrocarbon products by incentivizing local Ghanaian citizens through its well-designed waste purchasing program.
