Luanda – The Angolan oil Company Sonangol and China’s Qinghai Lihao Clean Energy company signed on Friday a memorandum of understanding that establishes a partnership to implement an industrial photovoltaic solar energy chain project.
According to a note sent on Saturday to ANGOP, Sonangol’s CEO, Gaspar Martins, and the executive director of the Chinese company, Wang Fu, signed the agreement for the joint assessment of the creation of the partnership.
The agreement establishes the production of photovoltaic panels in Angola through the usage of quartz mining as raw material.
According to the statement, the way is paved for, within a few years, Angola to have a solar panel industry based on the exploration of quartz, as well as the production of metallurgical silicon and polysilicon for the production of solar panels.
It adds that the factory, with a projected production capacity of 180,000 tons of metallurgical silicon and 150,000 tons of polysilicon per year, is expected to produce 50,000 tons of these products in the first stage of the project.
“In line with the principle of retaining the aforementioned minerals, avoiding export without the benefits of their transformation, a solar panel industry would play a key role in the energy transition strategy, considering the vital importance of solar energy in the process”, reads the statement.
CPM/VC/CF/AMP
