ACCIONA Microenergy Peru’s “Luz Comunitaria-Cajamarca” program brings its first units into service

This initiative is promoted jointly by the ACCIONA Microenergy Foundation, Energy Without Frontiers Foundation and the ICAI Engineers Foundation for Development, along with ACCIONA Microenergy Peru in the role of local partner. A number of other institutions collaborate with the project and provide economic and technical support at different stages of the program.

Initially, seven Community PV Solar Units (CPVSU) were installed in five schools and two churches in the districts of Namora and San Pablo. More recently, and with co-financing from the Madrid Regional Government, a further ten CPVSUs were installed in seven schools and three churches in the San Pablo and Tumbadén districts.

Previously, in 2012, with the cooperation of German service providers GIZ, studies and surveys were conducted to target priority community centers. In addition a special workshop was organized aimed at teaching the Luz en Casa (Light at Home) program's beneficiaries to install and maintain the PV solar units. The idea was to set up a team of technicians locally; now, these technicians provide installation and maintenance not only for domestic PV solar units but also community ones.

Moreover, in November 2013, and as an additional service to the start-up of these systems, local schoolchildren at schools where the CPVSUs were installed attended a special course/workshop on Sustainability and the Environment, in an effort to raise their awareness of how to look after the environment and the advantages of clean energy.

In short, the Luz Comunitaria-Cajamarca (Cajamarca Community Electricity) Program has its sights set on raising the quality of life and increasing the chances of achieving overall and sustainable self-development for the people who live in the 21 communities tha make up Cajamarca region. The new CPVSUs that have now come into service deliver four hours' worth of electric light a day and are capable of powering electronic devices. One of the immediate benfits for local schools is that now children are finally able to use the laptops that had been standing idle since they were first donated by the Peruvian authorities as part of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project.