The solar and social development company has secured nearly $1 million in international grants to fund solar development in the southeastern African country, where only 4% of the population has access to electricity.
The proposed project will increase the country's generation capacity by 15%, according to Gigawatt Global, a U.S.-owned Dutch company. The Burundi project follows Gigawatt Global's launch in February of East Africa's largest utility-scale solar field, an 8.5 MW facility in Rwanda on the grounds of the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village near Kigali, which added 6% to the country's electricity generation capacity after its interconnection last year -- and which nabbed the company a 2015 Nobel Peace Prize nomination.
The company has secured two grants totaling nearly $1 million for its effort in Burundi: one from Power Africa via the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) and the other from Energy and Environment Partnership (EEP), a coalition representing the British, Finnish and Austrian governments.
Read more: http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/gigawatt-global-shines-solar-on-burundi_100018891/#ixzz3X5ncFBjI