ABB is working to bring solar electricity to 10 communities in Myanmar, a country where demand for electricity greatly outpaces supply. According to the World Bank, more than 75 per cent of Myanmar’s 50 million people do not have access to electricity.
ABB’s solar-powered rural electrification project in the country will directly positively impact the lives of 3,000 people and is part of the company’s 15-year-old “Access to Electricity” program. The initiative was developed in response to the United Nations Global Compact that encouraged companies to provide greater assistance to developing countries.
The Myanmar project will establish solar battery charging stations run by women’s groups in remote villages in the Tada Oo township. This clean power will be sold to communities, encouraging economic self-sufficiency, entrepreneurship, equality and safety says the company.
The project’s launch coincided with the arrival of the solar powered plane, Solar Impulse, in Mandalay on March 19. The stopover was part of the first-ever round-the-world journey powered 100% by the sun; a flight being made possible through an innovation and technology partnership with ABB.
“Building up the energy infrastructure is essential to Myanmar’s future economic and social progress,” said Johan de Villiers, managing director of ABB in Singapore and Southeast Asia. “By supporting this grass-roots project, ABB will ensure that the communities around Mandalay will continue to benefit long after the Solar Impulse airplane has departed.”
The program, which is being backed by Pact Myanmar, will also offer financial support to villages to enable them to buy house solar panels and other components at the community level.
ABB is a global leader in research and development of power and automation technologies. Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, the company employs approximately 140,000 people and operates in around 100 countries. ABB solar inverters are a popular choice in Australia for residential solar and commercial PV installations.
Another solar-oriented company making major inroads in assisting developing nations with clean power is SunEdison. Its well established “Eradication Of Darkness” program was given a major boost recently when SunEdison announced a goal of bringing clean, renewable power to 20 million people in underprivileged communities throughout the world by 2020.
