Greater Accra Waste-to-Energy Project
Ghanergy Power Limited, in collaboration with OAK Group Holdings, is developing a proposal for a ~80 MW Waste-to-Energy facility in Greater Accra, designed to convert municipal solid waste into reliable baseload electricity with a substantial renewable fraction.
About Ghanergy
Ghanergy Power Limited is a majority Ghanaian-owned company formed to solve a waste problem. Greater Accra produces more municipal waste than it can lawfully dispose of, and the facility Ghanergy is developing exists to treat that waste at scale. The electricity recovered is what makes the treatment affordable — not the reason the plant is built.
The company is registered in Ghana, with its registered office in Takoradi, and develops the Project in collaboration with OAK Group Holdings of the Kingdom of Bahrain. It is led by an executive team combining international project development, legal and commercial structuring and Ghanaian project leadership, and holds the majority throughout. The Project is structured as a Public-Private Partnership under a thirty-year Build-Own-Operate-Transfer concession, funded by international equity and debt, with no public capital and no new State borrowing, and transfers to the Republic at no cost at the end of the term.
Strategic Infrastructure for Ghana
The Project responds directly to two persistent national challenges:
- No engineered landfill serving Greater Accra has design capacity remaining. Kpone is full and continues in use for want of an alternative, and a growing share of collected waste is hauled out of the region at public cost.
- The need for reliable, non-intermittent, green electricity
The engineered landfill being funded for Greater Accra by the World Bank at Ayidan under the GARID programme is necessary, but at about 360,000 tonnes a year it absorbs roughly a fifth of projected 2030 arisings. Statutory responsibility for disposal rests with the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies under Act 936, and the cost of discharging it is rising faster than the means to meet it.
The Project is intended to support Ghana's integrated waste management objectives, energy security, public health, local employment and environmental improvement.
Declaration
Ghanergy is committed to developing waste processing infrastructure that addresses Ghana's social and structural challenges with discipline, transparency and long-term national benefit. The Project is designed to combine private capital, Ghanaian leadership and internationally proven technology to deliver a durable waste and energy solution.
Why the Project Matters
The Project is designed to deliver significant benefits across waste management, energy, public health, municipal finance, employment and the environment — accruing to national government, the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies, and the public.
Waste Diversion
Targeted to process approximately 1.05 million tonnes of municipal solid waste each year, net of materials recovery, with more than 90% of received waste diverted from landfill — around 60% of Greater Accra's projected 2030 municipal arisings, leaving headroom for source separation, recycling and reuse to grow alongside it.
Reliable Power
Approximately 640 GWh per year of dispatchable baseload electricity at a capacity factor of about 91%, against roughly 17% for solar and 30% for wind. Enough to supply around 160,000 Greater Accra households at average urban consumption.
Improving ECG Capability
Under the proposed power purchase agreement, a contracted tariff with no fuel pass-through would give ECG a known cost of supply, and firm output it can plan as baseload rather than call on thermal plant.
Public Health
Addresses four exposure pathways affecting Greater Accra's population: open burning of waste, leachate reaching groundwater, lead exposure, and blocked drains driving flooding and vector-borne disease.
Climate and Environment
Avoids an estimated 525,000 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent each year, calculated as the methane no longer generated by anaerobic decomposition in landfill, expressed in carbon dioxide equivalent on the basis used for carbon crediting. Combustion and emissions control are specified to EU Industrial Emissions Directive standards.
Municipal Finance
A WtE tipping fee set below the Assemblies' current landfill disposal cost, avoided landfill capital of the order of US$6–9 million a year measured against the cost of the Ayidan engineered landfill, and around 50 km less haulage per load through closer siting. These figures are indicative and will be refined through the Bankable Feasibility Study.
Energy Security
Displaces generation from imported liquid fuel, reducing exposure to oil price volatility and easing pressure on foreign exchange reserves. The fuel is domestic, continuously replenished and not subject to import disruption.
Employment and Skills
Around 125 permanent direct roles and some 700 indirect and induced positions, with a construction peak near 500, at least 90% Ghanaian. Waste-to-energy supports materially more employment per tonne than landfill, alongside training pipelines with Ghanaian institutions. Not less than half of the permanent positions are committed to women, on a basis that cannot be satisfied by the lowest-paid roles alone.
Gender Parity and Localisation
Not less than 50% of permanent positions held by women at steady state, phased from 30% at commercial operation, and not less than 40% of permanent payroll. Every expatriate role is shadowed by a Ghanaian assistant manager, with full Ghanaian staffing the objective across the life of the concession. These are commitments of the operating company, reported annually.
Informal Livelihoods
Diverting waste from open dumps affects people who currently earn a living picking them. Ghanergy treats this as an economic displacement impact to be managed, not a benefit to be assumed, with a livelihood restoration plan prepared under the environmental and social assessment.
Resource Recovery
Recovery of ferrous and non-ferrous metals for return to the economy, with treated bottom ash suitable for road aggregate subject to Ghana EPA approval.
Returns to Government
Corporate taxation, dividends on a proposed government equity holding, employee PAYE and transfer of the facility to the State at the end of the concession period.
Strategic Position
Weighbridge and composition data giving Ghana an audited municipal waste dataset, a reference project for large-scale infrastructure finance, and a model replicable across Ghana and the wider region.
These benefits have been quantified in a separate benefits analysis, in which each item is sourced and assigned a confidence rating ranging from contracted through to potential. Figures remain subject to the Bankable Feasibility Study, Government agreement and final contractual documentation. The analysis is available to authorised parties on request.
Basis of the electricity supply comparison. Greater Accra urban households consume approximately 4,000 kWh per year on average (ECG billing data; Ghana Statistical Service, Household Energy Use survey). Approximately 640 GWh therefore corresponds to around 160,000 Greater Accra households. Rural consumption is materially lower, so a national average would give a higher household count; the Greater Accra figure is used because it is the population the facility serves. The comparison indicates scale only — output is delivered to the national grid under the power purchase agreement rather than to identified households. The solar and wind capacity factors quoted alongside are indicative values typical of utility-scale plant in the region, given to illustrate the difference between dispatchable and intermittent generation; they are not project figures.
Renewable classification. Municipal solid waste is a continuously replenished feedstock rather than a depleting one, and energy recovered from it is correspondingly perpetual. Formal renewable classification, however, is generally assessed on the biogenic proportion of the waste — the food, garden, paper and textile fraction — rather than on the permanence of supply. The biogenic share of the Greater Accra stream will be quantified through waste characterisation under the Bankable Feasibility Study, and the classification pathway under the Renewable Energy Act 2011 (Act 832) confirmed with the Ministry of Energy and the Energy Commission. Pending that work, the Project is described as baseload generation with a substantial renewable fraction.
Basis of the gender parity commitment. The commitment is expressed in two parts because a headcount target alone can be met while women hold only the lowest-paid administrative roles — on this establishment, 50% of positions could be reached while women received about 18% of payroll. The second limb, not less than 40% of permanent payroll, makes that outcome impossible and requires representation in the engineering, operations and maintenance functions, which account for 81 of the 125 permanent roles. Parity is phased — 30% of positions at commercial operation, 40% by year three, 50% by year five — because the Ghanaian technical pipeline in the relevant process, mechanical, electrical and instrumentation disciplines is presently narrow, and the trajectory is set to the rate at which it can be developed rather than asserted at commissioning. Both limbs are obligations of the operating company and are reported annually for the life of the concession.
Informal livelihoods. A census of affected workers and a livelihood restoration plan aligned to IFC Performance Standard 5 will be prepared as part of the environmental and social assessment, with progress monitored through construction and operation. Absorption into paid roles at the materials recovery facility and in logistics and plant operations, within occupational health, safety and minimum wage frameworks, is one component of that plan rather than the whole of it.
Basis of the landfill avoidance figure. Approximately 1.05 million tonnes a year diverted from landfill, at an in-place compacted density of about 0.85 tonnes per cubic metre, occupies roughly 1.24 million cubic metres of airspace. The unit cost is taken from the Ayidan sanitary landfill being funded for Greater Accra by the World Bank under the GARID programme — the actual counterfactual facility. Its published capital cost, comprising landfill civil infrastructure, landfill mobile plant and land at Ga West bulk rates, is US$21.6–31.6 million for approximately 3.6 million tonnes (some 4.24 million cubic metres) of airspace, or US$5.10–7.45 per cubic metre. The diverted volume therefore represents landfill capital of the order of US$6–9 million a year that the State does not have to fund. GARID describes its own figures as pre-design estimates to be refined; transfer stations, materials recovery and haulage vehicles are excluded as they are not landfill capacity. Bottom ash and air pollution control residues continue to require disposal, and landfill capacity will remain necessary for waste not delivered to the facility. Density and unit cost assumptions will be confirmed through the Bankable Feasibility Study.
Basis of the carbon figure. The 525,000 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent is the methane avoided by diverting waste from anaerobic decomposition in landfill, expressed in carbon dioxide equivalent on the basis used for carbon crediting. It is not a net figure across the whole facility and does not net off direct emissions from the combustion of the fossil-derived fraction. Creditable volumes under any specific carbon methodology would be determined separately.
Basis of the 2030 waste projection. Greater Accra's population rose from 4,010,054 at the 2010 Population and Housing Census to 5,455,692 at the 2021 Census (Ghana Statistical Service), a compound growth rate of approximately 2.8% per annum. Applied to a current Greater Accra Metropolitan Area arisings estimate of about 4,400 tonnes per day, together with a modest increase in waste generated per person arising from urbanisation and higher consumption of packaged goods, this indicates municipal arisings of approximately 5,000 tonnes per day by 2030. Commercial waste volumes are additional to this figure. The projection will be confirmed through waste characterisation work under the Bankable Feasibility Study.
Waste-to-Energy in Practice
Waste-to-energy is established infrastructure rather than emerging technology. It already operates on this continent, and in Europe it has run for decades inside dense urban areas — reinvested in and rebuilt as standards advance.
How the Facility Works
Municipal solid waste is received under enclosed conditions, sorted for recovery, conditioned into a consistent fuel, and combusted to raise steam for electricity export to the national grid.
Enclosed delivery, weighbridge control and inspection
Recyclables and non-combustibles removed
Refuse Derived Fuel of consistent quality
Proven technology for high-moisture waste
Steam turbine generating ~80 MW net
Reliable baseload power to Ghana's network
Emissions control Advanced flue gas treatment with continuous monitoring, designed to Ghana EPA and EU BAT standards
Recovered materials Recyclables and ferrous and non-ferrous metals returned to the economy
Residues Bottom ash processed for metals recovery and potential beneficial reuse
What Goes In, What Comes Out
The facility is designed to take a single waste stream and return electricity, recovered materials and a much-reduced residue for disposal.
Municipal solid waste from Greater Accra transfer stations, commercial locations and contractors — approximately 1.05 million tonnes per year net of materials recovery
Baseload power exported to the national grid, with a substantial renewable fraction
Recovered at the front-end MRF and from bottom ash, and returned to the economy
Bottom ash processed for metals recovery and potential beneficial reuse; air pollution control residues managed as controlled waste streams
More than 90% of received waste is targeted for diversion from landfill. The ~3,000 tonnes per day figure is an annual average. Waste reception continues during planned maintenance, with material held in bunker storage and processed on return to service, so annual throughput is not reduced by scheduled outages. Throughput, generation and recovery figures are indicative and remain subject to waste characterisation and the Bankable Feasibility Study.
Strategic Collaboration
Ghanergy and OAK Group have signed a venture memorandum recording their intention to collaborate on waste-to-energy and sustainable utilities in Ghana. Ghanergy Power Limited is proud to work alongside OAK as our strategic development and technical collaborator in the advancement of the Greater Accra Waste-to-Energy Project.
OAK describes its capability as follows:
OAK is an international engineering and project development company specialising in sustainable infrastructure, renewable energy and industrial projects across the Middle East, Africa and other emerging markets. Its multidisciplinary expertise spans project development, financial management, engineering, procurement, construction management, commercial advisory and long-term infrastructure delivery.
Working together, Ghanergy and OAK combine complementary strengths: Ghanergy contributes deep local market knowledge, stakeholder engagement and project leadership within Ghana, while OAK would provide international technical capability, financial expertise, project development capability and experience in delivering complex infrastructure solutions. This collaboration is intended to ensure that the Project is developed in accordance with internationally recognised engineering, environmental and commercial standards.
A Shared Commitment
We believe that successful infrastructure projects are built on strong local partnerships combined with international technical excellence. Our collaboration with Ghanergy reflects a shared commitment to developing sustainable infrastructure that delivers long-term environmental, economic and social value for Ghana.
— OAK Executive Management
As strategic development and technical collaborator, OAK is expected to contribute international engineering expertise, project development capability and commercial structuring experience, working closely with Ghanergy through the development process. The two organisations share a commitment to delivering infrastructure that meets international standards while creating lasting value for Ghana and its communities.
The Greater Accra Waste-to-Energy Project reflects the growing importance of integrated waste management and renewable energy infrastructure as part of the global transition towards more sustainable and resilient economies.
The venture memorandum between Ghanergy Power Limited and OAK Group is a non-binding statement of intent. It does not create financial or contractual obligations between the parties, and does not constitute a partnership, joint venture or agency relationship.
Current Development Focus
A Memorandum of Understanding for the Project was signed with the Minister of State for Special Initiatives, Office of the President, on 15 October 2026. It opens the privately funded Bankable Feasibility Study — technical validation, waste characterisation, environmental and social assessment, permitting, commercial structuring and financing preparation — alongside negotiation of the detailed project agreements with Government agencies.
Leadership
Ghanergy combines international executive experience, legal and commercial structuring capability, and Ghanaian project leadership.