European Union providing solar power to Marshall Is. atoll
Aug 28, 2007
Source: RadioAustralia.net
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s2017084.htm
European Union funding will provide solar power to 400 homes on a remote atoll in the Marshall Islands, providing electricity for the first time. The Marianas Variety news website reports that the Marshall Islands will be the first of five Pacific countries that have been negotiating solar aid packages with the EU to sign a funding contract which will see 440 home solar units delivered to the small island nation.
Most will go into Ailinglaplap, a remote atoll with five main islands with a population of about 2,000 people and no power source.
Marshall Islands resources and development minister, John Silk, says the project is a step toward bringing solar power to all inhabited outer islands in the Micronesian nation.
In the past two years, the government has installed solar units in the homes on four other remote islands in the country with funding provided by Taiwan, France and Australia.