ABU DHABI // Sierra Leone has announced plans to build the Freetown Solar Park project providing clean power to several districts around the capital, Freetown.
With a capacity of six megawatts, the project is a landmark clean-energy initiative in West Africa, said the country’s ministry of finance and economic development.
Half of the cost of the US$18 million (Dh66.1m) project is provided through a loan by the UAE. Through the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), the country is supporting six renewable-energy projects at a cost of $41m. The funding will also help to build wind, solar, hydro and biomass projects in Mali, the Maldives, Mauritania, Ecuador and Samoa.
The projects represent the first round in a seven-year funding cycle with a total value of US$350m to be provided to developing countries by ADFD in cooperation with the International Renewable Energy Agency.
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