{An American-Israeli led solar developer has been nominated for a US Department of State award of excellence in environmental sustainability following the successful construction of East Africa’s first utility-scale photovoltaic field.}
Gigawatt Global, an American-owned Dutch company co-founded by Jerusalemite Yosef Abramowitz, launched the 8.5-MW field last February, at the Israeli-inspired Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village in Rwanda. The $23.7 million field, located about 60 km. from Kigali in Rwamagana district, supplies about 6 percent of the country’s power and is expected to harness the sun’s light for 25 years.
On Wednesday, the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs announced that the company was chosen as one of 10 finalists for the 2015 Secretary of State’s Award for Corporate Excellence, joined by only two other firms in the environmental sustainability category.
The winners for that and the human and labor rights and small or medium enterprise categories, are slated to be announced on March 1.
“Gigawatt Global in Rwanda revolutionized solar energy in East Africa, delivering 8.5 megawatts of grid-connected power that serves 15,000 homes in Rwanda, while providing the added benefit of rental income to the local community for use of their land,” the State Department said on Wednesday.
The company is competing against Texas Instruments for a sustainable architecture project in the Philippines and Weyerhaeuser Productos S.A. for a clean energy program in Uruguay.
In addition to its status as East Africa’s first utility- scale solar facility, Gigawatt Global’s Rwandan field is also the first project to be grid-connected under the framework of the US Power Africa initiative which President Barack Obama launched in June 2013, aiming to add more than 30 GW of cleaner energy to Africa, to power 60 million homes and businesses.
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