It may seem unimaginable to build a power plant on a ship but for years now Karpowership, a subsidiary of Karadeniz Holding, has been a pioneer of this innovative project – the Powerships. 

The Turkey-based firm over the years has been playing an active role in meeting the urgent electricity needs of various countries.

Karpowership has established itself as a market leader in designing and constructing fleet of floating power plants, and currently operates 7 powerships with 1200 MW installed capacity across the Middle East, Asia and the Mediterranean.

Today Karpowership has 660 MV of Powership contracts with Iraq, the first country where the powership was deployed since 2010. It supplies 15 percent of Iraq's total electricity generation. Another country which has contracted the services of Karpowership is Lebanon. For close to 2 years it has been supplied over 200 MV of power.

The Karpowership for Lebanon

Ghana holds a unique position for Karpowership's projects. In June 2014, Karpowership signed a 10-year agreement with the Electricity Company of Ghana for the provision of 450MW directly to the country’s national grid via two Powerhips - one to be docked at the Tema port and the other at Takoradi port.

The project dubbed: “Power of Friendship for Ghana” is the first Powership project in Africa. It is expected to account for 22% of the Ghana’s total energy generation.

Sales Director Africa and Asia, Patrick O'Driscoll (Left) interacting with one of Karpowership's engineers

Karpowership considers Ghana the gateway to Africa. As part of its vision, the Turkey-based firm is hoping to make Ghana the hub of its operations in Africa when it fully sets up.

Play the audio below for Daryl's full report