The school rooftop solar program is part of the Nour Palestine scheme.
Image: Global Panorama/Flickr
The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to provide the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) with $18 million for the implementation of a 35 MW rooftop PV plan.
The investment is being made under the Economic Resilience Initiative which is intended to support economic growth in the western Balkans and Europe’s ‘southern neighborhood’ – defined by the EU as neighboring nations Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria and Tunisia.
The plan envisages the installation of solar arrays at 500 public schools in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The PIF kicked-off the tender for the projects in April 2018 and the average installed capacity per school rooftop is expected to be 70 kW. The project had originally been announced in January.
The PIF stressed the plan is part of its Noor Palestine solar scheme, aimed at deploying 200 MW of PV capacity over the next six years.
The program also includes construction of three large scale solar parks which, according to the PIF, are under construction. The Noor Jericho plant will be the first to go online under the Noor Palestine project and, with a generation capacity of 7.5 MW, will be the largest. The Noor Tubas site, with 4 MW, and the 5 MW Noor Jenin project are also part of the initiative.
Palestine is supporting rooftop PV through a partnership with the World Bank, the Gaza Electricity Distribution Company and the Palestinian Authority. A $2.5 million pilot program aims to provide more power supply to the troubled area of Gaza.
Source: pv magazine
