The International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) are supporting a $12 million solar project in the Palestinian Authority (PA) territory of Gaza, the first privately financed energy project in the PA in more than a decade.

The solar project will be developed by the Palestine Real Estate Development Company (Prico), part of the Palestine Development & Investment Company (Padico), which will construct, operate and maintain a 7MW rooftop photovoltaic (PV) solar plant in Gaza.

The solar plant will provide energy for 32 factories in Gaza’s only industrial park, the Gaza Industrial Estate. The project is expected to create up to 800 direct and indirect jobs, which will be facilitated by the cheaper and more reliable electricity from the solar plant.

Many areas of Gaza suffer from daily power outages from 12 to 16 hours, with annual supply at less than 50 per cent of average demand. The authority also has a high reliance on imported energy, with 70 per cent of electricity and 100 per cent of fuel currently imported.