Solar street lighting in Akkar

CEDRO, a joint energy efficiency program, announced the start of the second phase of a project to install solar street lighting in the Akkar caza.

This final phase entails the installation of 210 solar lighting poles in Wadi Khaled and Akroum. It also includes lighting eight hospitals and clinics and 200 households in Akkar. The contractor has not been assigned yet.

Hassan Harajli, Project Manager, said: “The project is wholly financed by a $1.6 million grant from the Saudi Fund for Development and implemented by the UN Development Programme.” The contractor for the first phase, locally-based Solarnet, implemented the first phase in a period of five months. It included the erection of 290 solar street lights in the same region.

The solar panels were imported from China.

CEDRO, the Country Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program, is in charge of procurement and project management. “The project is expected to be completed by year’s end,” he said.

CEDRO is a program created jointly between the UNDP, the Ministry of Energy and Water, the Ministry of Finance and the Council for Development and Reconstruction, in 2007.