This artifact throws more light on a project led by the University of Nottingham aimed at creating energy from cocoa husks to enable Ghana achieve her target of universal electricity access by 2030.
With Ghana being the 2nd highest cocoa producing country in the world, the probability of producing huge amount of waste as a result of cocoa cultivation and processing is no surprise. Cocoa bean waste is not repurposed and left to rot. However, with the inception of this project, rural communities will be equipped to “produce their own biofuel by burning the cocoa husks in a bio-power electricity generation unit, which is then converted into electricity through a gasification system formed of a gasifier and the 5kW generation unit”.
To realize this scheme, the people have been educated about it and will also be made to control the means of production through cooperatives, which will in turn work through the division of labor. This in my opinion is a vivid example of treating the people as curators of the intervention or policy, as opposed to treating them as the target. Gillard et al. (2017) have documented a boost in engagement and uptake of interventions when this approach is used, and that assertion has been validated in this article since the scheme has been well received by the communities, as stated in the article.
What the environmental impact of this project would be was however not addressed in this article. I believe that also has to be studied to make this scheme holistically viable and sustainable. On the other hand, being passionate about ascertaining the possibility of using natural resources abundant in Ghana to produce renewable energy sources, I couldn’t resist contributing this news article.
Source
Unwin, J. (June 10, 2019). Using cocoa husks to create power in Ghana.
Jack Unwin, "Using cocoa husks to create power in Ghana", contributed by Barbara Ackun, The Energy Rights Project, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 15 May 2020, accessed 26 April 2024. https://energyrights.info/content/using-cocoa-husks-create-power-ghana
Critical Commentary
This artifact throws more light on a project led by the University of Nottingham aimed at creating energy from cocoa husks to enable Ghana achieve her target of universal electricity access by 2030.
With Ghana being the 2nd highest cocoa producing country in the world, the probability of producing huge amount of waste as a result of cocoa cultivation and processing is no surprise. Cocoa bean waste is not repurposed and left to rot. However, with the inception of this project, rural communities will be equipped to “produce their own biofuel by burning the cocoa husks in a bio-power electricity generation unit, which is then converted into electricity through a gasification system formed of a gasifier and the 5kW generation unit”.
To realize this scheme, the people have been educated about it and will also be made to control the means of production through cooperatives, which will in turn work through the division of labor. This in my opinion is a vivid example of treating the people as curators of the intervention or policy, as opposed to treating them as the target. Gillard et al. (2017) have documented a boost in engagement and uptake of interventions when this approach is used, and that assertion has been validated in this article since the scheme has been well received by the communities, as stated in the article.
What the environmental impact of this project would be was however not addressed in this article. I believe that also has to be studied to make this scheme holistically viable and sustainable. On the other hand, being passionate about ascertaining the possibility of using natural resources abundant in Ghana to produce renewable energy sources, I couldn’t resist contributing this news article.