Yemen is building a solar power plant in the south and is planning to construct two others after securing funding from Abu Dhabi-based Masdar Company, Yemen’s Electricity Minister was quoted on Friday as saying.

Mana bin Yemeen told an Abu Dhabi-based Erem news agency that his war-torn country is devising a strategy to rely more on renewable energy, benefiting from its sunny skies in most days of the year.

He said the UAE through Masdar has approved plans to fund solar power plants in Yemen and that the country’s first such plant is being built in Aden with a capacity of 120 megawatts (MW).

“The project is now in its final stages and it also includes installing a 9-km distribution cable network…it is a strategic project that will tackle Aden’s power shortages,” he said.

Yemeen said Austria-based ILF Consulting Engineers is preparing technical studies for the two other solar plants at the request of Masdar.

He said the two projects are located in the South-Central Shabwa Governorate and the Eastern Hadramout province, adding that details of these projects would be disclosed later.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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