Jerusalem-based renewable-energy developer Energiya Global will invest $1 billion over the next four years for green power projects across 15 West African nations as part of a memorandum of understanding signed between Israel and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
“In honor of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s two terms in office, and Liberia’s friendship with the State of Israel, Energiya Global and our international partners will fund and construct a commercial-scale solar field at Roberts International Airport, which will deliver 25% of the nation’s generation capacity,” announced Yosef I. Abramowitz, Energiya Global CEO.
“We are ready to fund and build the first National Demonstration Solar Projects in all ECOWAS-affiliated states in order to encourage political strength and social and economic development, as well as to progress knowledge transfer.”
Energiya Global and its related companies developed the first commercial-scale solar field in sub-Saharan Africa in Rwanda, which augmented the country’s solar power by 6%, and the group broke ground on a power plant in Burundi, which will deliver 15% of the country’s power by the end of the year.
Energiya Global has fields at different phases of development in 10 African countries and will publicise its full program at the Israel-Africa Summit in Togo at the end of October.
The announcement overlapped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the ECOWAS Summit in Liberia on June 4, marking the first time a non-African leader was requested to speak at the forum “With 600 million Africans without electricity, the State of Israel can plainly help African heads of state bring power to the African people,” says Avraham Neguise, chairman of the Israel-Africa Caucus of the Israeli Parliament.
