UNESCO’s Renforus initiative acknowledges the “Light at Home” programs in Cajamarca and Oaxaca as “Best Practices”

The "Light at Home" programs carried out by ACCIONA Microenergy Peru in Cajamarca and ACCIONA Microenergy Mexico in Oaxaca, benefit remote communities in singular locations. For example, the scope of the "Light at Home Oaxaca" program covers the Huatulco Biosphere Reserve, the historic center of Oaxaca and the Monte Alban archaeological site, and the prehistoric caves of Yagul and Mitia in Oaxaca's Central Valleys.

As a result, the "Light at Home" program has joined the Renforus "Strengthening of Communities" projects featured in the initiative's Global Good Practices Guide 2013.

The Guide highlights the success achieved by the renewables-based program in Peru where more than 3,000 Domestic PV Solar Units (DPVSU) were in service at the end of 2013. The program has achieved its objective to demonstrate the feasibility, sustainability, and affordability of rural electrification with the use of photovoltaic energy. It has also given communities efficient lighting - enough to make the day more productive and educational - and helped to lower the risk of illness caused by smoke from the kerosene lamps used for lighting. In addition, the people affected by the program have gained greater access to the use of electronic information devices and have become less isolated.

Renforus has also distinguished the program in Mexico, where it was launched jointly by the Mexican authorities, the Spanish Cooperation Agency and the ACCIONA Microenergy Foundation as a public-private development venture. The initiative intends to take electricity services to small isolated communities in the State of Oaxaca by installing around 9,500 small DPVSUs by late 2016.