Energy has been recognized as an indispensable resource for the promotion of economic
activities and the enhancement of human welfare. This realisation has underpinned several
research works in the field of energy and the environment in order to address socio-economic
issues including, poverty, income disparity, energy availability, accessibility and affordability in
urban and rural areas. Urban centers in Ghana were thought of in the past as being catered for in
relation to energy supply, accessibility and affordability. There is better supply of energy in the
urban areas compared to the rural areas, but it is also fraught with unreliability issues (Akuffo,
2007). Consequently, research works on energy in general and lighting in particular were until
recently focused on the rural areas, in a bid to empower rural folks to better their livelihoods. In
order to track the transitional paths regarding the forms of energy used generally in Ghana and
specifically in urban Ghana and the issues underpinning the patterns of usage, it is imperative to
review thoroughly the extant literature on energy in the country. This literature review shall
focus on the energy situation in the urban Ghana, even though an overview of the general case
for the whole country will be addressed.