Identifying Priority Health Facilities For Backup And Off-Grid Energy Solutions in Ghana Using the Energy Access Explorer

Most of Ghana's rural population, and the great majority of its roughly 6,500 CHPS compounds, sit in the same dispersed geography where extending the national grid is slowest and most costly. This report uses the Energy Access Explorer (EAE) to identify where backup and off-grid energy solutions for health facilities would do the best. Combining demand data (population, health-facility proximity) with supply data (solar irradiation, wind speed, and distribution/transmission-line proximity), the EAE ranks Upper East region highest for backup-power priority score of 50.4%, strong solar resource, and an average distance of just 3.45 km to distribution infrastructure across around 230 facilities. Only 3% of the analysed land area is rated ‘high’ Energy Access Potential, yet it holds 42% of the analysed population, concentrating impact per dollar invested. Solar-battery hybrid systems also cost roughly a quarter to a third as much per kWh as diesel over their operating life. Recommendation: prioritise Upper East for first-wave, technology-matched solar-battery deployment; match technology choice to grid distance rather than a single national design; and build this work into Ghana's existing renewable-energy policy rather than waiting on new regulation.