Peru To Provide Solar Power to 2 Million of its Poorest Residents for Free.

Peru unveils a plan to use PV solar panels to provide electricity to two million people currently living without electricity.  Peru last week initiated a new program that will provide electricity to more than two million of its poorest residents using solar panels.

Photo Credit: Julia Manzerova/Flickr

Jorge Merino, Energy and Mining Minister, told the Latin American Herald that the entire program will allow 95 percent of Peru to have access to electricity by the end of 2016.  That will be done by installing a planned 12,500 solar (photovoltaic) systems, reaching 500,000 households, according to PlanetSave.com.

Bidding will be opened later for contractors to install the rest of the panels, Merino said.

The energy minister inaugurated the first phase of the project Monday in Contumaza, a province in the northeastern region of Cajamarca, where 1,601 solar panels were installed.

Currently, only about 66 percent of Peru’s population has access to electricity.  Peru is the 3rd largest country in South America, with a population of over 24 million residence, and a poverty headcount ratio at poverty line of 25.8%.

The entire program will cost about $200 million.

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