Posted on :Wednesday , 19th July 2017

 SolarWorld Americas Inc is providing 1.2 megawatts of high-performance solar panels to power the world's largest solar-powered, safe-water treatment project. The project's systems will serve more than 250,000 Congolese and Burundian people living in three refugee settlements in Western Tanzania.  

The project is proceeding under the management of Water Mission and the funding of the Poul Due Jensen Foundation (Grundfos Foundation).

Water Mission is an engineering nonprofit that designs, builds and implements safe water, sanitation and hygiene solutions for people in developing countries and disaster areas.

The Poul Due Jensen Foundation, which funds sustainable, resilient and affordable safe water projects in poor rural communities in developing countries and the world's forgotten refugee camps, is providing $5.3 million to improve health and living standards in the Nyarugusu, Nduta, and Mtendeli refugee settlements.  

The project's goal is to pump 100 percent of the water using solar power, with diesel generators as backup. Since 2010, Water Mission has relied on SolarWorld solar panels for projects in some of the world's most remote and harsh conditions in light of their high durability, compared with other panels that have been tested or used on projects.  

"In the hundreds of projects that I have worked on, we have never had a service call for a defective SolarWorld panel," says Will Furlong, Water Mission's regional director of Tanzania.

"The company provides a level of confidence that's hard to quantify because we wouldn't be able to effectively maintain other unreliable power sources."