A not-for-profit utility cooperative from Texas has been awarded a contract to electrify a community in Liberia with a solar-plus-storage microgrid, to benefit around 400 homes and businesses.
Bandera Electric Cooperative, based around 50km from San Antonio, has been awarded the project in Totota in eastern Liberia by the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). NRECA is the overseeing body for all of the US’ not-for-profit utility cooperatives, which are generally run at community level.
In addition to the 42 million cooperative customers across 47 states of the US, the association is involved with programmes to develop better access to electricity for rural communities in emerging economies around the world. Claiming to have already helped 110 million people across 43 countries, NRECA has worked in countries including Bangladesh, Ghana, Guatemala, Philippines, Bolivia, Uganda and South Sudan.
NRECA International has been involved in programmes in Liberia since 2014, when the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) began supporting the country’s Rural and Renewable Energy Agency (RREA) through a US$178 million investment programme for off-grid projects, Beyond the Grid. This has led to the development of a small (24kW) pilot PV project in 2015, a biomass project a year later and an ongoing 1MW run-of-river hydroelectric project.
Recent Comments