Our Members: Professor David Quansah

David A. Quansah has contributed to AISESA's growth, voice and, development over the past decade. He is Director of The Brew-Hammond Energy Centre at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Accra, Ghana. For roughly seventeen years, his work at KNUST has advanced Ghana's energy sector, while also serving as a base for partnerships across the continent and internationally. Under his leadership, the Centre's collaborations continue to grow. In this interview, he reflects on the origins of his career in the Energy, where the gaps between research, policy and practice show up in Ghana today, and what regional power integration could mean for cross-border energy access.

You've built a career teaching and researching in Ghana. What first drew you to the energy space, and what is one thing about working on these questions from Ghana that people elsewhere on the continent might not expect?

DQ: The inspiration for this career path came during my Masters Degree programme at KNUST in the mid-2000s when I met Prof Abeeku Brew-Hammond, of blessed memory. It was a programme in thermo-fluids and energy systems. Even though by its design, Masters programmes are specialisations, the programme was designed in such a way that it had scope for students to focus on various areas of interest. During this period, there were discussions on energy as the missing link in the economic and human development discourse, and this being the key reason why a number of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) had been missed. Prof Brew-Hammond was a strong proponent of energy as “missing MDG”. Across the continent, electricity access levels were extremely low at the time, with some countries having as low as 15% - access levels in rural areas was even worse. Ghana itself was doing around 55% electricity access rate at the time. This reality became the inspiration for my career. Many people on the continent might not know that Ghana has one of the highest electricity access rates in sub-Saharan Africa.

From your perspective as a knowledge producer, how do you experience the existing gaps between research, policy, and practice in Ghana's energy sector today? Is there an example that illustrates this?

DQ: At KNUST we endeavour to anchor our research agenda and develop academic programmes to respond to national and continental development priorities.  We have been fortunate to work quite closely with the Energy Commission (the technical regulator of Ghana’s power sector) and the Ministry of Energy and Green Transition. There is, however, scope to do more, particularly with industry. In a recent study, we found that awareness on Ghana’s Net-Metering Policy was quite low among respondents in the Hotels and Real Estates sector in the country and while many had received proposals from solar installation companies, they were unsure if the technology would perform if they invested. On the other hand, significant research (e.g. long-term performance of Photovoltaics in Ghana) had been conducted by researchers at KNUST and other universities in Ghana that could significantly ease decision-making if the gap between research and practice had been narrowed.  

If you could change one thing about how knowledge moves between universities, government, and industry in Ghana, what would it be —  and what role do you see a pan-African network like AISESA playing in making that happen?

DQ: I would invest more resources in coordination among stakeholders. I want to see the knowledge systems truly serving the people by providing empirical evidence for policymaking and using research to support job creation and the competitiveness of Ghanaian industries. AISESA as a continental level network could provide knowledge brokerage opportunities and also provide the space to share best practice on how the university-government-industry triangle has been harnessed in various contexts for national development.

AISESA: Finally, what are you currently working on that you'd like the AISESA community to know about  –– whether that's research, a project, or a collaboration you're building?

DQ: One of the projects that I am currently working on with colleagues at KNUST and from the University College of London is the political economy of regional power integration in which we explore the dynamics, experiences and aspirations around regional power pools. We are also working on how cross-border electrification can accelerate access to electricity and the attainment of the SDG 7 goals. As you may know, some border communities in Togo have been directly electrified from Ghana, instead of waiting for the grid to reach them from within Togo itself. We are interested in exploring how this model could be leveraged to reach more people.