Enel and Elettrici Senza Frontiere partnership takes off in Kenya
Enel has signed an agreement with energy non-profit Elettrici Senza Frontiere onlus (ESF onlus) to support growth, emergency and post-emergency initiatives in rural and poor communities.
The agreement signed by ESF and Enel’s non-profit organisation is part of “Sustainable energy for all”, a campaign promoted by the UN to bring sustainable electricity to all corners of the world by 2030, overcoming the gap that currently prevents over 1 billion people from having access to electricity. The agreement represents one of the many ways in which the Italian multinational power company plans to carry out its Open Power strategy, a concept that was presented in November by the Group’s CEO, Francesco Starace, and which places sustainability at the heart of corporate business development.
“The first mission that will see Enel working alongside ESF and the French sister company Electriciens sans Frontières (France) will begin in spring 2016 in Kenya,” explained CEO of the non-profit organisation Stefano Sironi, from Enel France. “The project will involve the two villages of Ilkiremisho and Purko, located in the highlands north of Nairobi and inhabited by the Masai people. The villages will be provided with electricity through the installation of solar panels and energy saving light bulbs, and through the creation of small autonomous street lighting systems with LED lights, mobile phone and battery recharging stations and USB sockets. We are also planning to install drinking water extraction pumps for use in schools, medical dispensaries and first-aid centres.”
The PV plant in Ilkiremisho will supply power to the new health centre, the primary school and the community center. A solar-powered water pumping system will feed a water supply network, which will in turn distribute drinking water throughout the village through six fountains. In Purko, the power system will provide clean energy to the new elementary school and the two new centres that will host 120 boys and 120 girls. Both the school and the two boarding schools will be supplied with drinking water, thanks to the creation of a well and a pumping system powered by PV panels. Drinking water access will be subsequently extended to the rest of the village.