The project will require an investment of US$ 35 million, reports government run press agency, Palestinian News & Info Agency, which will be provided by PIF, the investment arm of the Palestinian Authority. It is expected to take four years to complete.
The signing ceremony was attended by Palestinian Prime Minister, Rami Hamdallah, who said the agreement is part of government efforts to integrate renewables with governmental institutions.
Mohammad Mustafa, PIF director added that the project is the first of its kind in the region, and will further the development of the Light Palestine project, launched by PIF.
Minister of the energy authority, Zafer Melhem commented, “This contributes to reducing reliance on imported energy and achieving energy security, diversification of energy sources, sustainable development and environmental protection.”
PIF also recently launched the Tubas Solar Power Plant, and freed up US$11 million investment to generate 8MW of solar power in the northern West Bank.
The plant furthers the Noor Palestine solar energy program, an innovative strategy to strengthen Palestine’s energy security through green power.
Popular content
Great strides
The Palestinian solar industry has made great strides in the past year. In July, Turkish company Zorlu Energy signed a memorandum of understanding with Palestinian utility, JDECO for the construction of an unspecified number of solar plants in the Middle Eastern region.
A $2.5 million initiative was announced by the World Bank in August, meanwhile, which will support the installation of around 1 MW of rooftop PV systems. Overall, 1,000 PV systems with a power of 1 kW each will be installed in critical areas under the program.
In total, the World Bank and trust fund development partners are providing $11 million to solve the ongoing energy crisis in Gaza, which started in May when the Palestinian Authority announced it would stop paying for Gaza’s imported electricity from Israel.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.