We bring ‘Luz en Casa’ to the Peruvian department of Cusco
06/26/2022- We will provide electricity to 500 households in isolated communities around the Cusco districts of Machupicchu, Vilcabamba, Santa Teresa and Huayopata in Peru.
- For the first time, the families benefited will have access to reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity with solar home systems.
We arrived in Peru with the objective of contributing to universal access to electricity and other basic services in the country 13 years ago. After consolidating our rural electrification programmes 'Luz en Casa' and 'Luz en Casa Amazonia' in the departments of Cajamarca and Loreto, we bring 'Luz en Casa' to remote communities in the department of Cusco now.
The communities in the districts of Machupicchu, Vilcabamba, Santa Teresa and Huayopata in Peru are very isolated, with remote households that are affected by the impossibility of accessing electricity by conventional ways (grid connnection). According to Peru's National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI), 29.72% of households in Vilcabamba have not access to the public electricity service, as well as 16.19% of households in Santa Teresa, 15.27% in Machupicchu and 13.04% in Huayopata.
Due to this problem of access to electricity service, acciona.org and the Municipal Ecotourism Association of the Inca Resistance Machupicchu - Choquequirao, made up of municipalities of the four districts, created a Inter-Institutional Cooperation Framework Agreement in order to analyze the electricity situation in the districts and find solutions based on clean energy, while reducing the use of fossil fuels.
The isolation conditions of the households are extreme with severe weather all year round. Sometimes, it's only possible to access them through restricted Inca roads. In this context of complicated conditions, we arrived with our 'Luz en Casa' programme to bring the model of electricity service to provide access to sustainable energy.
The management and sustainability model replicates those previously implemented with 'Luz en Casa' in Peru. The implication of the local people is fundamental: the beneficiaries, individually or as part of the Photovoltaic Electrification Committees; and local entrepreneurs, who offer services in 'Centros Luz en Casa'.
The households benefited will be able to enjoy more than 6 hours of electricity per day, charge cell phones and activity of electrical appliances for a few hours. The benefits of having access to clean energy services are directly reflected in the improvement of the quality of life of the beneficiaries and their environment: improved health, economic savings and environmentally friendly.