Peru’s poorest will soon have solar power

[Judi Lynn]

Peru’s poorest will soon have solar power
By Holly Richmond
18 Jul 2013 2:54 PM

Solar is for rich people — or so it often seems. There’s the cost of the panels themselves (although they’re slowly becoming more affordable) and the fact that getting your landlord to plop solar panels atop your apartment building might be a lost cause (unless you live in these Seattle apartments). Community solar is catching on, but solar is still out of reach for most of us.

Unless you live in Peru. The country just launched The National Photovoltaic Household Electrification Program, an initiative to get solar to 2 million of the country’s poorest residents:

The first phase of the program, called “The National Photovoltaic Household Electrification Program” was initiated on Monday (July 8) in the Contumaza province, where 1,601 solar panels were installed. These installations will power 126 impoverished communities in the districts of Cupisnique, San Benito, Tantarica, Chilete, Yonan, San Luis, and Contai.

The program plans to install about 12,500 solar (photovoltaic) systems to provide for approximately 500,000 households at an overall cost of about $200 million.

More:
http://grist.org/list/perus-poorest-will-soon-have-solar-power/

[think]

1. k&R Awesome news. Replacing oil lamps with clean solar

And providing 95% of the population of Peru with access to electricity by 2017 up from the current 66% who currently have electricity now.

Positive ideas for a positive world (IMO).....

[Flatulo]

2. Hmm... Not really very much power to start with.

1600 solar panels is only 350kW under absolitely ideal conditions. This works out to less than 5600 watts per community.

That's about as much power as one US household consumes.