The Government is hoping to provide some 30,000 hinterland households with 150KW solar panels, Prime Minister Mark Phillips told the Parliamentary Committee of Supply on Monday.
The $1.75 billion project is expected to benefit some two hundred communities, the Prime Minister said.
In September 2021, the government of Guyana and the Government of India through the Exim Bank signed a US$7.2 million Line of Credit agreement to power 30,000 households in the hinterland last year.
The project was not done and prompted Opposition Member of Parliament, Dawn Hastings- Williams, to question the status of the project and how many households were powered last year.
While the Prime Minister did not answer the questions specifically, he assured that the project will get underway during the first quarter of this year.
“Thirty thousand households will be provided with the solar panel system and we will start receiving the solar panel this year—during the second quarter of this year we are expected to receive 10,000 panels and we will distribute that 10,000 and for the rest of the year, we will receive another 10,000 and by the final quarter, it is our expectation that by the end of this year all solar panel system will be in country and they will be distributed in some 200 hinterland communities,” the Prime Minister told the Committee of Supplies.
The Prime Minister said the project will be significant for the people who will benefit since it will be the first time some of them will be benefiting from electricity.
“The whole aim is to bridge the energy divide, my ministry is responsible for bridging the ICT divide and the energy divide and I wish to assure the member that I will work to ensure that both divides are bridged,” the Prime Minister said.
The Government will also be increasing its spending on existing hinterland power stations to provide electricity for longer hours, the Prime Minister said.
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