Dr. Kow Joseph Essandoh-Yeddu joined the energy sector through the erstwhile National Energy Board in 1989. Starting as an Associate Programme Officer for Solar Energy, he rose through the ranks to Senior Programme Officer till 1999 when he left for Sweden for his master’s degree programme. Upon his return in 2001, he moved to energy planning where he co-led the national and Energy Commission’s team that produced Ghana’s Strategic National Energy Plan 2006 – 2020. He has been the head of the Strategic Planning and Policy Division of the Energy Commission since 2003.
Dr. Essandoh-Yeddu has been a member of Government of Ghana’s negotiating team to the UN Climate Change convention and Kyoto Protocol since 2005. He was a lead author in the IPCC (Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change) Working Group Three of its fifth Assessment Report. Also a member of the IPCC Nobel Laureate Scholarship Technical Committee for selection of applicants, 2015-2017. He was also a peer-reviewer for 2014 IEA (International Energy Agency)’s World and African Energy Outlooks.
He was a member of the Government of Ghana’s Presidential Commission that advised the Government on Potential Use of Nuclear Energy for Power Generation in Ghana in 2007. Also a member, Selection Committee, Millennium Excellence Award-Ghana, Climate Change and Environment Category, 2015 Prize.
Dr. Essandoh-Yeddu has a B.Sc in Physics from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, (KNUST, Kumasi) (1981-1985). He holds an MSc Engineering degree in Environment and Energy Planning from Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg University in Sweden (1999-2001).
He has his PhD research at the Bureau of Economic Geology of the Jackson School of Geosciences of the University of Texas at Austin in the USA from 2006-2009 where he looked into the economics of geological capture and storage of anthropogenic carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery in Texas Gulf Coast. Whilst in Austin, Texas, he also worked as an energy economist at the Bureau. He received his PhD degree in 2010 from University of Cape Coast. Dr. Essandoh-Yeddu also has post-graduate certificate in Business Administration from Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).
He authored a book Energy Economic Analysis of Power Plant CO2 Capture and Pipeline Transport in Texas Gulf Coast which is on sale at Amazon.com and major online bookstores. He also contributed the chapter on Natural Gas Market of the book - Advances in Natural Gas Technology (published by InTech Open Science online bookshop which was released in 2012).
Besides his regular job, Dr. Essandoh-Yeddu does part-time teaching too. He is an adjunct lecturer to some institutions in Ghana and Germany. He was a Burns Visiting Scholar to the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada in 2015 and in 2016, also a Visiting Scholar to the Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.