Lighting the way
Dr. Mohammad Mustafa and the President of the European Investment Bank inspect the progress of work on the Rooftop Solar Investment Fund Program at the Al-Bireh Al-Jadeeda Girls Secondary School
Jerusalem24 – Dr. Mohammad Mustafa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Palestine Investment Fund, and Fernard Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank, ran an assessment of the solar energy program on school roofs this Sunday.
The program is implemented by the Fund in partnership with the Ministry of Education and electricity distribution companies.
This assessment took place during a visit to the Al-Bireh Al-Jadeeda Girls Secondary School, one of the schools benefiting from the program that aims to generate 35 megawatts of electricity, equivalent to an average consumption of 16,000 homes, by installing solar cells on the roofs of 500 public schools.
The school started producing electricity after installing solar energy systems at the end of 2021. The school’s production capacity is about 6.66 kilowatts with 148 solar panels. The fund has so far completed installing the systems on the roofs of more than 150 schools and is expected to reach 200 schools by the end of 2022.
Dr. Mustafa said, “This project is part of the “Noor Palestine” solar energy program launched by the Fund to generate about 200 megawatts of electricity, and includes building plants to generate electricity from solar energy.”
“Two of them are the “Noor Jericho” plant in Al-Nu’ima in the Jericho Governorate and the Jordan Valley with a production capacity of 5.7 MW,” he continued, “and the “Noor Jenin” plant in Kafr Dan in the Jenin governorate with a production capacity of 5 MW. [This is] in addition to the solar energy program on the roofs of 500 schools.”
Dr. Mustafa added: “We are proud that after the completion of the installation of solar energy systems on the rooftops of the 500 schools, this will contribute to the annual electricity bill of the participating schools at an average of $1.2 million.”
All the installation operations are carried out by developers from the Palestinian private sector with the aim of enhancing the competitiveness of Palestinian national companies and involving them in the implementation of projects.
Dr. Mustafa explained that the fund attracted international institutions to finance the program, such as The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the World Bank Group.
Fernard Hoyer stated, “We are proud of this partnership with the Palestine Investment Fund. […] this project represents everything that the [European Investment] Bank aspires to achieve in terms related to the environment.”
“It is through sustainable energy alternatives and the process of digital transformation that we see the model of this smart school to achieve the economic and development goals related to power generation,” he concluded.
