The Rwanga Foundation, a non-profit organisation based in the Iraqi city of Erbil, has inaugurated the country's first fully solar-powered village.
The Kulak solar village, located in the Harir district in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq, will offer inhabitants round-the-clock electricity. Local press has reported the solar village features 195 solar panels that will provide power to 36 homes, a mosque, a school and a community hall.
According to a statement from the Rwanga Foundation, solar-driven irrigation might also be possible and there are plans to provide hands-on training programs in regenerative agriculture.
The foundation adds that the initiative arrives as the region faces escalating environmental challenges, including extreme heatwaves, water scarcity and rapid desertification. According to a United Nations ranking, Iraq is the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change in the world.
There are plans to replicate the Kulak model across rural areas in Kurdistan and central Iraq before the end of the decade, with the foundation planning to work in partnership with regional authorities and international organizations.
“Our vision is to see this model grow across Iraq – one village at a time – until sustainability becomes the standard, not the exception,” said Idris Nechirvan Barzani, founder and president of the Rwanga Foundation.
Figures from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) state Iraq's cumulative solar capacity stood at 42 MW at the end of last year.
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I am an electrical power engineering student (first stage I will go to second) so I was looking at some information about solar energy, farms, how to study it, and its courses in India (Suryamitra) and I plan that I will complete my course there because I see that solar energy has a future in our country (in order to provide stable and comfortable energy to the people of our country who have spent their whole lives hating electricity😂), My question is will we really depend on farms in cities or will they only monopolize companies or private entities not cities and the people