Ground-Mounted Solar Array Meets Elephants – A Solar Solution for West Africa’s First Luxury Safari Lodge

EWIA’s current project-portfolio covers a range of industries and regions, allowing us to achieve strong diversification for our investors while reducing costs and emissions for our clients. Today, we’d like to introduce you to Zaina Lodge in Mole National Park in Ghana’s Northern Region. Thanks in part to its solar power system, the lodge exemplifies sustainable ecotourism that combines nature conservation with economic opportunities for the region. The CO₂ savings associated with the new ground-mounted PV system over 25 years are equivalent to the carbon footprint of approximately 98.4 million smartphone charges. Particularly heartening, however, are the footprints of over 600 elephants in the national park.

Mole National Park (pronounced “Moh-lay”) was the first wildlife reserve established in Ghana in the 1950s. Today, it encompasses 4,577 square kilometers of pristine Ghanaian savanna forest landscape in northern Ghana. Mole is the largest and most developed of the country’s seven recognized national parks and 21 protected areas, and Zaina Lodge is the first luxury safari lodge in West Africa. And it has an ecological concept.

Zaina Lodge combines tradition and modernity

Zaina Lodge features 24 unique and spacious tented chalets. Each tented chalet offers spectacular views of the vast forest savanna of Mole National Park, and every room is decorated in a classic safari style and furnished with hand-selected pieces from Ghana’s finest artisans. However, tradition and modernity blend seamlessly here, as the tents also feature air conditioning and WiFi—and that is precisely why a contemporary, environmentally friendly, and reliable energy supply is essential.

Real Impact

National parks are dedicated to conserving nature, flora, and fauna. Naturally, this philosophy also extends to energy consumption.

For the Zaina Lodge, we installed a 50.05 kWp ground-mounted system designed to last 25 years, saving 32.36 tons of CO₂ annually, or 809.12 tons of CO₂ over 25 years.

To sequester this amount of CO₂ over 25 years, approximately 64,700 beech trees would need to be planted (roughly calculated at 12.5 kg of CO₂ sequestration per tree per year). This corresponds to a forest area of about 80 soccer fields, which would need to grow undisturbed for 25 years.

809 tons of CO₂ is also equivalent to driving approximately 4 million kilometers in an average gasoline-powered car. That’s roughly 100 times around the Earth. Or 350 round-trip flights in economy class from Frankfurt to Accra (Ghana).

This reduction covers the annual carbon footprint of about 90 average German citizens. In Ghana, where per-capita emissions are lower, this figure would be many times higher. Over a 25-year period, the lodge’s CO₂ savings are so substantial that they equal the emissions that would result from fully charging over 98 million smartphones on the conventional power grid.

Joining Forces to Protect Animals

For the first time, we at Zaina Lodge are collaborating with Infra Futura as our EPC partner, an African subsidiary of Sweden’s Stella Futura founded in 2023. Our philosophies complement each other perfectly here, because not only does Infra Futura also provide training, but like us, they place particular emphasis on well-trained women and even run a special “Women on the Roofs” program.

We are also pooling our expertise because, for the first time, we are facing a challenge that requires a smart and practical solution for the open-air facility: protecting wildlife—or, rather, protecting against wildlife. Fortunately, there is plenty of it here.

The biodiversity in Mole is impressive, with 742 species of vascular plants and over 90 species of mammals, including five primate species. The dominant vegetation is an open savanna forest with grasses that can grow up to three meters tall during the rainy season. Open areas of short grassland, known as bovals, are found in places with flat terrain and iron pans. Narrow strips of riparian forest grow along most streams.

Among the large mammals most commonly found in the park are elephants, kobs (an antelope similar to the waterbuck), waterbucks, bushbucks, warthogs, red hartebeests, buffalo, various duikers, oribis, baboons, patas, and vervet monkeys.

Birdwatchers will also find plenty to enjoy thanks to the numerous endemic species. At least 344 bird species can be seen here, including some spectacular ones such as the crimson finch and the saddle-billed stork.

600 elephants – and counting

The number of elephants in the park today stands at around 600–800, which is significantly higher than in the 1970s. Our CEO, Ralph Schneider, had the opportunity to visit the park for the first time back in March 1990. Even then, the elephants living in the wild were the most impressive attraction. The park is, in fact, the most important habitat for the world’s largest land animal in the entire country. But these pachyderms, of course, know no national borders, which is why the park serves as a crucial stopover on their annual migration between Ghana and Burkina Faso. Park rangers now have access to technology provided by the World Bank that can track the herds’ movements in real time (read more about software-based monitoring here).

A (male) African elephant can easily reach a weight of five to six tons (he consumes about 200 kg of food daily), which is roughly 75 times the weight of an average man. The literal bull in a china shop can therefore cause some damage to the grounds here in its habitat, so we go to great lengths to protect both the herds and the open-air enclosure. Accordingly, we have spent a considerable amount of time discussing the topic of settlement, fencing, and possible precautions with the operators.

We are delighted to be able to help further enhance this gem in North Africa and bring green electricity to a place where not only is the smell of diesel generators no longer an issue, but also their noise, which no longer disturbs the local wildlife.

Local talent

The facilities are designed and operated by operating subsidiaries of the EWIA Group. Both the solar power plant at “Zaina Lodge” and the one at “ACARP-Recycling” (more on this here) are being constructed and installed by local companies. However, this is done under the supervision of the EWIA subsidiary EWIA Green Investments West Africa Ltd.