50Ah third-generation solar home system installed in the Peruvian Amazonia in 2022.

In June 2009, Luz en Casa started in the Peruvian department of Cajamarca, where it grew up to benefit the current 3,900 households, and from where this initiative has been replicated and tailored to different areas in Mexico, Panama, Chile, Philippines, and Ethiopia, up to now.

Luz en Casa developed an innovative electricity service delivery model with solar home systems, in return for an affordable fee to remote, poor households not having been within electrification plans. These systems had the following main components: 1 panel 85Wp, 1 lead gel battery 100Ah, 1 controller and 3 lamps, which guaranteed daily 8h of electric lighting, charging of 1 mobile phone, as well as 3h of TV and 7h of radio, both of voltage 12V.

Today, almost 15 years later, when the replacement of the batteries is being considered -although they still operate at sufficient performance-, acciona.org has decided to start, in the Tumbaden district and its surroundings, a pilot project to offer 50 households the replacement of the whole system with a third-generation system.

This advanced system has the following main components: 2 panels 150Wp, 1 LiFePO4 battery, controller and prepayment system integrated in one piece of equipment and 3 lamps. This makes it easily transportable and installable, as well as it avoids going homes to cut and reconnect thanks to the prepayment system. More important, it guarantees daily 12h of electric lighting, charging of 2 mobile phone, as well as 6h of TV, 10h of radio, 2h of liquidizer and 2 hours of laptop, all of voltage 12V.

Households benefited with the pilot project will have the Centro Luz en Casa Vista Alegre to receive proximity attention. This centre is being adapted to the new requirements to give the electricity service with third generation solar home systems, such as the management of the codes of the prepayment system, with 12V equipment -printer, computer, etc.- fed by a solar home system, as well as satellite internet.

Gilmer and Maria own this Centro Luz en Casa since 2015, when acciona.org started these supply & service centres to offer technical services and sale of electric devices from Luz en Casa beneficiaries’ homes to their surroundings beneficiaries. Now, Gilmer and Maria son joins the family small business to be in charge of the services for the new systems, once he has ended his studies and has come back to his community to help his family.

Gilmer and Maria in 2015, when they opened their Centro Luz en Casa Vista Alegre