Jordan has set up a solar plant in a refugee camp for Syrians fleeing the civil war. The United Nations' refugee agency says it is the first migrant shelter in the world to be powered by renewable energy.
A refugee settlement in Jordan which hosts thousands of migrants fleeing the Syrian war has become the "first refugee camp in the world to be powered by renewable energy."
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) said on its website: "The new solar plant is the first of its kind in a refugee setting, and will transform the lives of thousands of Syrians living in harsh desert environment" with the possibility to light up their homes, charge their phones and chill their food by solar power.
Clean energy free of charge will be provided to some 20,000 Syrian refugees living in shelters that have been linked up to the electricity grid since January. The grid is due to be expanded to all 36,000 refugees currently residing in the camp by early next year.
The plant was built at a cost of 8.75 million euros ($9.6 million), funded entirely by the IKEA Foundation's "Brighter Lives for Refugees" campaign. It will result in immediate energy savings of $1.5 million a year - which the UNHCR will be able to reinvest in other much-needed assistance - as well as annual CO2 emissions savings of 2,370 tons, the agency said.
Electrification will also transform the lives of Syrian refugees living in the harsh environment of the camp, located in Jordan's barren northern desert. For the past two and a half years, Azraq's residents had to depend on portable solar lanterns to light their homes and had no reliable means of preserving food or cooling their shelters in the extreme desert heat. The introduction of electricity earlier this year improved their daily lives. A milestone for migrants living in camps
"Today marks a milestone ... It allows all residents of the camps to lead more dignified lives," said Fatima, a 52-year-old single mother from rural Damascus, who has been living in the camp since 2015 with her two adult sons. She described the practical and psychological benefits that electricity has brought to the camp and its residents. "In Syria, we were used to a particular lifestyle and then we were disconnected from it when we became refugees," she said. "For someone who is used to having electricity, you cannot imagine how difficult it is to live without it."
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