Peru to Provide Free Solar Power to its 2 Million Poorest Citizens

[The Straight Story]

The country of Peru is looking to provide free electricity to over 2 million of its poorest citizens by harvesting energy from the sun. Energy and Mining Minister Jorge Merino said that the National Photovoltaic Household Electrification Program will provide electricity to poor households through the installation of photovoltaic panels.

The first part of the program aims to provide solar systems to 500,000 extremely poor households in areas that lack even basic access to the power grid. Unsurprisingly, it is a massive opportunity for domestic solar installers, and Merino has said that bidding for the contract will open later this year to fix the rest of the panels.

The project was first started in Contumaza, a province in the northeastern region of Cajamarca, where 1,601 solar panels were installed. The energy minister has said that when the project is finished, the scheme will allow 95% of Peru to have access to electricity by the end of 2016.

Speaking to the Latin America Herald Tribune, Merino said: “This program is aimed at the poorest people, those who lack access to electric lighting and still use oil lamps, spending their own resources to pay for fuels that harm their health.”

http://inhabitat.com/peru-solar-power-program-aims-to-give-electricity-to-the-countrys-2-million-poorest-citizens/

[woo me with science]

1. Don't they know

this will reduce their motivation to work?

Meanwhile, American Democrats and Republicans cut heating programs and food stamps.

[bread_and_roses]

5. + 1000's (n/t)

[bahrbearian]

6. Thats why We're #1,,, We're #?

[leftstreet]

14. +1

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. USA! USA! USA!

[KittyWampus]

17. Democrats are cutting food stamps?

[woo me with science]

18. They already have.

Obama signs bill cutting 2.2 billion from food stamps December 2010
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x309

And itching to do it again:

Democrats Vote to Accept More Cuts in Food Stamp Program May 2013
http://billmoyers.com/2013/05/28/democrats-accept-more-cuts-in-food-stamp-program/


Here's a map:

[Catherina]

22. +1000000 n/t

[Rex]

25. According to Mc Donalds

you don't need heating, but do need a second job.

[Ichingcarpenter]

2. Commies not thinking about the big picture neglecting

the 1% and our energy companies.

[LuvNewcastle]

3. But, but solar power doesn't work!

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. Privatize the sun, water and the earth

that's the solution

[darkangel218]

7. You forgot the air too.

.

[woo me with science]

19. I have no doubt they are working on it. nt

[darkangel218]

20. I wouldnt doubt it.

They will probably end up selling oxygen to the over polluted areas. If they're not already doing it.

Pretty sick.

[Coyotl]

8. Coming soon, a patch of ground to grow food using sunlight!

In Peru, I wouldn't be surprised.

[Sunlei]

9. 95% of Peru to have access to electricity by the end of 2016

excellent.

No more soft black coal for cooking/heat and cheap oil for lamps.

[SoCalDem]

21. and no more chopping down trees for firewood .. n/t

[belcffub]

27. Unless the systems they are installing are huge

which from the photos it does not appear so, they will still be heating with wood... It takes a lot of electricity to run a heating element...

Those photos show at most a couple hundred watt system... you can provide light and charge things but heat would require a much much larger system to to run even a 1000 watt hot plate long enough to boil water...

This is still cool none the less... I have a small 400 watt system with 4 golf cart batters at my cabin that I run my lights, radio and electronics (laptop, iPhones and such) off of... I can run larger loads like a circular saw but not for a long time... (a circular saw would be about 1500 watts give or take)

[The Straight Story]

28. And you can use wood now to store electric:

All Charged Up: Engineers Create A Battery Made Of Wood
The big idea behind Joe's Big Idea is to report on interesting inventions and inventors. When I saw the headline "An Environmentally Friendly Battery Made From Wood," on a press release recently, I figured it fit the bill, so went to investigate.

The battery is being developed at the Energy Research Center at the University of Maryland in College Park.

I really wasn't sure what a wood battery would look like. I knew you could make a battery out of a potato and wires, so I figured maybe they were doing something similar with a block of wood.

Wrong. The "wood" is actually microscopic wood fibers that are fashioned into thin sheets. The sheets are then coated with carbon nanotubes and packed into small metal discs.

The wood batteries use sodium ions, rather than the lithium ions that are found in the batteries of cellphones and laptops. In this case, the charged particles move around in the wood fibers, creating an electric current. It turns out wood is a good medium for sodium ions to move around in.

Now, wood is comparatively cheap. So is sodium. Liangbing Hu, head of the battery project, says he's hoping the new batteries can be scaled up so they'll be useful for storing the vast amounts of energy generated by solar arrays or wind farms.

http://www.wknofm.org/post/all-charged-engineers-create-battery-made-wood

[belcffub]

29. very cool

and hopefully (hoping) less dirty and dangerous then the lead acid batteries I am using now... I have had them going for 5 years now and want to get three more out of them...

[bananas]

32. Currently, only 66% have access to electricity - that's a huge change.

Energy and Mining Minister Jorge Merino said that the program will allow 95% of Peru to have access to electricity by the end of 2016. Currently, approximately 66% of the population has access to electricity.

Read more at http://cleantechnica.com/2013/07/15/peru-solar-power-program-to-give-electricity-to-2-million-of-poorest-peruvians/#RRthGrgYvRRzsyrU.99

[JDPriestly]

10. We need to do something similar here.

That's the way to achieve energy independence and move to environmentally friendly energy sources.

[n2doc]

11. Given how rugged and remote much of Peru is, this is the best solution n/t

[Orrex]

12. We're #25! We're #25!

Apparently they get more sun in Peru and Germany than in the US...

[toby jo]

13. I've got an Amish fellow building a barn for me & just bred a few mares to his stud.

He ships semen, keeps it cool/frozen, has lights, etc., all through solar. & Still has the beard and the buggy and the wife in a bonnet.....

[The Straight Story]

15. He ships his or the horse's?

[AllINeedIsCoffee]

23. The way forward. As a resident of coal country, I envy them. nt

[Rex]

24. Hurry! We must get trickle down economics into their system STAT!

Providing free power to anyone is what SATAN and Ralph Nader would do! No no no...what if other countries wanted stuff like that? Bad enough the serfs here want socialized medicine!

This is capitalism not barbarism! Scoff scoff scoff!

[Benton D Struckcheon]

26. Great idea.

The devil will be in maintaining these systems, though. Getting out to a rural area deep in the mountains to fix something once the install is done will be a bit of a challenge. But excellent thinking on the part of their gov't.

[belcffub]

31. hopefully they design simple systems

If they are just looking to provide DC the system can be very simple... panels, charge controller, battery are the main components along with some simple fuses, grounds, and distribution... You can build a system like that for well under $1k and if buying in bulk get a greater savings...

[NoPasaran]

30. Sounds like a great project

Let's remember to check at the end of 2016 to see if the Peruvian government actually gets things up and working.

[usGovOwesUs3Trillion]

33. If only we were as wealthy as Peru, imagine what we could do

but i hear the 'Peace dividend' will be stupendous!

[Liberal_in_LA]

34. yay