Acciona Microenergy Peru and the Inter-American Development Bank sign a major cooperation and financing agreement

1,700 new households in Peru’s Cajamarca region will have access to electricity in 2013 using domestic PV solar units

Some 1,700 households in remote villages in the region of Cajamarca, Peru, will for the first time gain access to electricity with domestic PV solar units thanks to a Technical Cooperation and Loan Agreement signed between ACCIONA Microenergía Perú [ ACCIONA Microenergy Peru] (AMP) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

The loan will allow AMP to acquire domestic PV solar units to extend its Luz en Casa (“Light at Home”) program, which has already installed 1,300 units in the Cajamarca region since the program began in 2009. The new PV solar units will allow AMP to provide electricity to a further 1,700 households in Cajamarca. The IDB loan is supported by international cooperation funds from the Spanish Government’s Social Enterprise Program.

By the end of 2013, 3,000 households living below the poverty line will have benefitted from the Luz en Casa project. These homes will have at least four hours of electricity a day, which will give children better light for studying, and give families the chance to watch TV, listen to the radio and charge mobile telephone batteries. Access to electricity has an almost immediate impact on the quality of life, with clear benefits in education, health and safety and economic development overall.

In addition, an IDB donation will go towards training, community activities and institution- building, which are all vital to the successful implementation of the program. The 10-year loan will go towards the purchase of solar PV equipment.

The agreement between AMP and the IDB was signed recently in Lima, Peru, with the presence of Verónica Zavala, IDB Andes Group Manager, Fidel Jaramillo, IDB representative in Peru and Julio Eisman (Vice-president) and Jessica Olivares (Manager) for AMP.