ENERGY RELATED PROJECTS

ARA is concerned with promoting public participation in caring for the Earth, we realise the importance of education and awareness campaigns in schools. In our daily lives we depend on energy and in Ghana we use mostly coal to cook. Coal is a non-renewable source of energy and is a polluter of air. Here energy for cooking food is mostly dependent upon forest resources. Also in Ghana, 96% of its 20 million inhabitants depend upon bio-mass energy for domestic purposes to which 76% is provided by fuel wood. Many rural households use traditional cooking stoves that use firewood as a fuel. The use of firewood stoves for cooking is not only harmful for human health, due to indoor air pollution and the risk of accidents, but also creates high pressure on the national forest for energy requirements.

Lighting Africa/Ghana

ARA is member of the Lighting Africa Project  initiatived by World Bank Group aimed at providing up to 250 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa with access to non-fossil fuel based, low cost, safe, and reliable lighting products with associated basic energy services by the year 2030.Currently, 1.7 billion people worldwide are without electricity. The problem is most acute in Sub-Saharan Africa where over 500 million people presently lack modern energy, with rural electricity access rates as low as 2%.

Among the poorest of the poor, lighting is often the most expensive item among their energy uses, typically accounting for 10-15% of total household income. Yet, while consuming a large share of scarce income, fuel based lighting provides little in return.

New advancements in lighting technology, such as compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and light emitting diodes (LEDs), promise clean, portable, durable, lower cost, and higher quality lighting. The challenge is to make these products accessible to the half billion "lighting poor" in Africa. With expenditures on fuel based lighting estimated at US$38 billion annually, the potential exists to engage the international lighting industry in this new market area, while serving consumers, bolstering local commerce, creating jobs, enhancing incomes, cleaning the air, and improving health, safety, and quality of life.

Sustainability is our highest priority. We guarantee it through appropriate technology and competitive prices. Our high quality products are designed to enables our customers to adapt their electricity needs to their individual financial situation without overstraining.

ARA supports rural schools, health centres, women groups, religious institutions and all other groups involved in poverty eradication and development. We work hard to accelerate development, benefit health, education and environment, create jobs and open business opportunities.