A US$10 million loan from the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) will support the installation of a 7 megawatt solar photovoltaic project expected to benefit 2,444 households in Bequia.
The renewable energy venture aims to reduce carbon emissions, fossil fuel consumption and operating costs, ADFD said in a press statement on Sunday, as it announced US$105 million in financing for eight projects, four of them in the Caribbean.
Speaking in Campden Park on Sunday, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said that the power plant and supporting battery storage will make energy cheaper for the people of Bequia.
“It would be like its own micro grid but it can go into the national grid,” he said in announcing the funding at the convention of his Unity Labour Party.
The projects were approved under the seventh cycle of ADFD partnership with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).
The IRENA/ADFD Project Facility announcement marks a record level of funding for any cycle since the facility was launched.
It will also provide funding for projects in Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, St. Lucia, Burkina Faso, Chad, the Maldives, and Nepal.
The announcement made during the 10th IRENA Assembly brings cumulative funding to date to US$350 million, in line with the commitment made by ADFD across seven funding cycles to IRENA-recommended projects.
The Facility supports developing countries in securing low-cost capital for renewable energy projects to increase energy access, improve livelihoods and advance sustainable development on the ground.
Since the first cycle selection of projects in 2014, ADFD has successfully funded 32 renewable energy projects across the world, covering up to 50% of the total project costs.
This is a very timely project; the way to go
Normally, a government is elected and put in charge of the people’s needs and security; Invest in the development of the harmonious community. NORMALLY. Curios enough though, only around election time does all kinds of positive plans emerge from lying big guts Gonsalves’s mouth. After 20 years your mother, sister, brother, cousin, child living in another land and you looking to leave the first chance you get. Young adults finishing school without prospects. Hopelessness and misery. Get ready for more of that under that demon. large cross sections of the populace fall short of the most basic things. [..]