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Mozambique: Solar Panels to Electrify Rural Areas |
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Scritto da Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique
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 A number of districts not covered by the country's power grid will receive solar panels in 2008.
This investment, by the National Energy Fund (FUNAE), is to cater mainly for the districts that are not yet benefiting of the power distributed by the publicly owned Mozambican electricity company EDM, and for which perspective for that effect are not for soon.
Energy Minister Salvador Namburete said in Maputo on Sunday that this project is to create conditions for providing electricity at least to key sectors such as education and health in those districts, particularly in the least favoured localities.
In a first stage, this project is to benefit 150 schools and a similar number of health units.
He explained this investment comes because 'there are schools without electricity in the country, health posts and maternities, that have to function, even at night, using kerosene lamps or candles for the lack of electricity'.
Without mentioning the amounts or the priority districts in this project, Namburete said that the cost of this project is relatively low if compared with that of electrification using the national power grid.
Less than eight per cent of the Mozambican population had access to electricity in 2005, and the majority of those who did were living urban areas, and in the rural areas only two per cent had access to this commodity.
One of the factors that is thought to hinder electrification in the country, particularly in the rural areas, is the fact that poverty will not allow a return of the money invested.
Electric power is generally thought of as key factor in socio-economic transformation in the rural areas, because electricity consumption will lead to economic growth, though not in a lineal manner.
FUNAE has been counting on the support of international institutions, including the World Bank and other private partners to work on the electrification of districts across the country.
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