Israeli NGO moves forward with plans to build solar fields in Mozambique
With less than 15% of the country's citizens connected to electrical infrastructure, most people "face chronic poverty" in the region with little means to get themselves out of penury.
By ZACHARY KEYSERHeliostat mirrors reflect the sky in a field at the construction site of a 240 meter (787 feet) solar-power tower in Israel's southern Negev Desert, February 8, 2016. The world's tallest solar-power tower is being built off a highway in the Negev Desert in southern Israel, its backers hoping the tec(photo credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)
Israeli NGO, Jerusalem-based Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development (ICSD), has announced that they will be moving forward with plans to create a large solar field on Mozambican Church Land, shortly after Pope Francis arrived in Mozambique.The Pope received a vibrant welcome in to Mozambique on Wednesday. His visit is intended to encourage the country's fragile and marks the beginning of a three-nation African tour where climate change, poverty and corruption will also be high on the agenda.A memorandum of understanding (MOU) and two land-lease agreements were signed to build these solar fields as a part of the Faith Inspired Renewable Energy Project, a joint initiative between the ICSD, multinational renewable energy company Gigawatt Global and the Anglican Church in northern Mozambique and Eswatini.Deputy Director of the ICSD Phillipa Friedland signed the MOU in Linchinga, Mozambique with Her Excellency Francisca Domingos Tomas, Governor of the Niassa Province."The overwhelming majority of rural households, schools, and health clinics in Niassa Province lack electricity. Our goal is to significantly increase clean energy generation and help reduce energy poverty in one of the poorest places in the world," said Friedland. "Renewable energy production can significantly reduce reliance on diesel and gathered wood, the most polluting fuels, thereby helping to address air pollution and climate change."With less than 15% of the country's citizens connected to electrical infrastructure, according to the NGO most people "face chronic poverty" in the region with little means to get themselves out of penury.Over the entirety of sub-Saharan Africa, more than 600 million people have no access to electricity - the hopes of these projects are to promote wealth, health and economic development throughout the Mozambique region to make an "incredible difference in people's lives", according to CEO and Founder of Gigawatt Global Josef Abramowitz."The majority of the population lives on less than $2 a day and many experience food insecurity and malnutrition. Mozambique, with a population of 29 million, is greatly impacted by climate change and recently took the brunt of the most powerful storm ever to reach Africa, Cyclone Kenneth," according to a press release.These projects will promote sustainable development through the introduction of solar and wind technology, as well as curb climate change and enable future generations of Mozambicans to thrive - further hopes are to bring these projects to the remaining some 550 million sub-Saharan Africans also currently suffering the affects of this plight.
