Largest solar plant in Africa opens

GASABO, Rwanda, June 8 (UPI) -- Rwandan President Paul Kagame has inaugurated Africa's biggest solar energy plant.

The facility, which is installed at Jali hill in Gasabo District, was funded by the German state through a company called Stadtwerke Mainz and Rhineland-Palatinate citizens, the New Times in Kigali reported.

At the launch of the facility, Kagame said there would not have been a better way to mark 25 years of cooperation between Rwanda and Germany.

"In 2004, we experienced a major power crisis brought about by the falling of water levels in our water bodies and this was at a time when Rwanda had set the pace of development," Kagame said.

The plant is expected to increase the production of power, and also facilitate conservation of the environment.

During the function, the visiting leader of Rhineland-Palatinate, Kurt Beck, said people in his state are proud of Rwanda having this biggest plant on the continent.

"This comes at a time when the world is facing environmental degradation and this infrastructure we are witnessing sends a positive signal toward preserving it (environment)," Beck said.

Rwanda's state minister for communication and energy, Albert Butare, said the new project was conceived in 2003 and a memorandum of understanding for its construction was signed in July 2006 between the government and Rhineland-Palatinate.