Mozambique: First Stone Laid for Solar Panel Factory

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/solutions1/sectionnews.php?secao=mining&id=17146&tipo=one Mozambique and India are investing 10 million US dollars in building a factory to manufacture solar panels in the Belulune Industrial Park, on the outskirts of Maputo. Energy Minister Salvador Namburete laid the first stone for the new factory on Thursday. Construction is expected to take a year. When it is operating, the factory will employ 70 people, include 15 engineers trained in India. Namburete said that initially the raw materials for assembling the solar panels will be imported from India, but he hoped that later Mozambican companies can be identified who can manufacture some of the components. Currently Mozambique imports the solar panels used to provide electricity for schools, health posts and other public institutions that are not linked to the national electricity grid. Namburete said that the initiative to build the factory arises as part of the government’s strategy to use all available energy resources, including solar power and other renewable energies, for the country’s development. This was only the first factory, he added, since it could not possibly serve the entire country. “We want this initiative to be repeated in other parts of Mozambique,” Namburete stressed. (source: AIM NEW)