The African Development Bank and the Government of Ghana through the Ghana SREPInvestment plan intend to develop hybrid renewable energy mini-grid electricity systems, standalone solar PV systems, and roof-mounted net-metered solar PV systems for the Lakeside and Island communities in the Volta, Brong Ahafo, and Northern Region for the provision of clean electricity for sustainable economic development.

The project involves the development of:

1. 35 mini-grids for 60 communities in 9 districts across the Northern, Brong Ahafo, and Volta Regions;
2. the deployment of 12,000 units of roof-mounted net-metered solar PV systems for public institutions, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), and selected households within the Electricity Company of Ghana and Northern Electricity Distribution Company networks;
3. the deployment of up to 11,000 standalone solar home systems for 500 communities in 11 districts across Northern, Brong Ahafo, and Volta Regions.

The Global Center of Adaptation’s National Infrastructure Risk and Resilience Assessment for Ghana revealed some of the communities where Ghana's SREP solar assets will be located fall within fragile climate ecosystems and climate hazard hotspots. Climate hazards such as floods and landslides were assessed & projected by GCA National Infrastructure Risk and Resilience Assessment to have a high probability of occurrence across Ghana SREP regions (Volta, Northern & Brong Ahafo). The frequent occurrence of these hazards could potentially affect solar assets by (i) shortening the design life of the assets, (ii) causing repeated systems breakdown and increasing the frequency of maintenance and repairs, and (iii) reducing annual energy generation revenues.

Within this context, GCA requires Consultancy Services to conduct climate risks assessment and develop climate-resilient technical guidelines for asset siting, designs, operations, and maintenance to mitigate the impacts of climate risks to solar Mini-grids and Standalone Solar home systems on the Ghana SREP Mini-Grid and Solar PV Net Metering project.

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• Access to a diverse range of data and their respective pre-processing, poses an important step in the development of a climate risk assessment. The Consultant’s approach requires access to local data, such as meteorological observations, geo-location of project sites, access roads, drainages, rivers and in addition to this, climate re-analysis and projection data, and land-cover data.
• Obtain geospatial data for the three regions, the different districts of interest, the cities, towns, and village
• Literature Review
• Conduct a high-resolution climate risk assessment to identify the relevant current and projected climate hazards across the districts in the Volta, Brong Ahafo, and Northern Region
• Analyze the impacts of the identified climate hazards and associated climate risks on the planned solar Mini-grids and standalone solar home systems, and subsequently develop climate-resilient technical guidelines for solar asset siting, design, operations, and maintenance to mitigate the impacts of climate hazards on solar Mini-grids and standalone solar home system.
• Conduct quality checks on geospatial data, by visiting and documenting sites
• Model climate risks, the data enables a comprehensive description of the mean state and variability of local climate variables and their main drivers. The data will be obtained by accessing regional weather station data.
• RE Technology insight: work on and monitor projects including biogas, grids, mini grids, Solar and Hydro PVs, improved cooking stoves, electrification, and productive use of Energy; studies on RE technologies (solar, hydro, geothermal, wind, biomass etc).
• Program a financial, technical, and legal analysis of feasibility; provide feedback in a structured manner; proposal assessments and portfolio review; workshops; project appraisals; feasibility studies; energy and climate policies and regulations.
• Knowledge sharing & capacity building: Prepare and deliver training tailored to various needs; develop interactive training materials; develop guidelines/manuals; strategic advice on attracting private investments; arrangement of financial packages; stakeholder consultations.
• Desk reviews & stakeholder mapping: Data collection; document reviews – proposals, reports, strategic documents; capacity building; market landscape studies (identifying opportunities, barriers, key stakeholders, investment environment etc).

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