GVEP International brought together public and private stakeholders working on energy issues at their seminar “Clean Energy and innovative IDEAS in Peru and Latin America" which was held on March 12, 2010 in Lima.
Pedro Gamio, GVEP International Regional Director “meetings such as this allow us to promote discussions on the best ways to provide access to energy in off-grid rural areas, their gradual connection to the market and as a result, to the modern sector of the economy."
A solar energy workshop within the seminar offered guests the opportunity to discuss how various solar energy technologies can be brought to rural areas.
The seminar was also an opportunity for some of the 2009 IDEAS Energy Innovation Contest winners to present their projects.
Engineer Fabio Luiz Oliveira Rosa, from the Institute for The Development of Alternative Energy and Self Sustainability gave a lecture entitled "The Sun Shines for All", where he shared his success in bringing solar technology to various remote areas of Brazil seeking to eliminate the issue of darkness and power exclusion.
The lecture set out to highlight the benefits of sustainability, promotion of access to and decentralised generation of renewable energy. In Mr. Rosa’s model, users hire generators that supply energy and receive post-installation training in exchange for affordable monthly payments. To ensure the maintenance of equipment, local energy agents are hired, trained and entrusted with the replacement of batteries, spare parts and the maintenance of the generators.
“The installation of the equipment is easy but the problem is normally that two or five years later the equipment stops working because of a lack of maintenance, says Mr. Rosa.” It’s the same story everywhere, no matter the country or the language". To tackle this problem in 2006 Mr. Rosa and GVEP International had created ‘The Universal Protocol for Decentralized Generation Management’, a framework for the management of descentralised energy generation to ensure the sustainability of installations. With the technological knowhow in hand and an abundance of business opportunities, the focus now lies on transforming corporate and social cultures so that they are more receptive.
Another contest winning project that was presented by Emprenda, Vivencias (ACP Group) and the Ford Foundation during the seminar was "Microfinance for the provision of solar energy in rural households". The venture aims to develop a commercial franchising model that brings together micro-finance with solar energy, to make energy available to rural communities in Argentina and Peru. It is innovative in that it brings together the product (solar panel) and the service (electricity) with financial credit. This is a model that Emprenda began refining in 1999 in a remote and desolate area in northern Argentina, with 1.5 inhabitants per square km. “We have so far installed about 1,100 equipments of between 40 and 50 watts obtaining a penetration of 6 out of every 10 households – says Mr Boyd. “All households had an energy demand and we were the only suppliers who also could offer credit facility”.
Engineer Rafael Espinosa of the Center for Renewable Energies and Rational Use of Energy at the National University of Engineering (CER-UNI), Peru, made an interesting presentation on how renewable energy will be used to create added value for locally made products such as grains, medicine herbs and cheeses which will then be sold to tourist markets through a newly set up local company. The project hopes to turn San Francisco de Raymina— remote community in central Peru— into a model of rural community development and self sustainability.
Mauriño Gutierrez Soca, a community representative who spoke at the seminar said that although "his town is small, the efforts made in the area of electrification have meant a huge progress for the people and have changed community life for many." There are several people who help drive this project in Ayacucho but "community participation is the vital axis in the development of this project," said Espinosa.
"Designing, testing and selling highly efficient water wheels" that will generate electricity, pump water and provide mechanical energy was another one of the projects presented at the seminar. In conversation with GVEP International, Miguel Hadzich, from the Center for Innovation and Development PUCP explained how “the wheels use hydraulic technology, formerly used in mills, in order to produce electricity." Within the next few years, the team plans to build eight of these wheels in three different sizes (500 watts, 1kilowatt and 2kilowatts) that will be installed in five locations in Peru (three on the coast, two in the mountains and three in the jungle). "The idea is to set up and train small companies in these locations so that they will be able to maintain and run them” said Miguel Hadizch.
Ari Loebl, Chairman of the committee of Biofuels of the National Society of Industries (SIN) spoke of "Biofuels and Value Chain in Peru". In his presentation Mr. Loebl made a diagnosis of the current status of liquid biofuels in Peru. He emphasized that one of the biggest problems for the development of these projects is that of land tenure. In this regard, and as a representative of the SIN, he proposed a plan of land trust through which farmers, rather than selling their land, rent it to a third party which in turn negotiates with farmers' unions and stipulates a contract with wholesalers. For Loebl, the objective of the plan is to improve the bargaining power of small farmers with wholesalers, without losing the ownership of their land.
Finally, the Engineer Fernando Rossinelli Ugarelli, General Director of Rural Electrification of the Ministry of Energy made an extensive presentation of the national plan for rural electrification as part of the Peruvian government policy. The current plan, adopted in 2009 that runs until 2018 "has been developed in close coordination with regional and municipal governments to combine its content with their development plans." Over the last years from 2006 – 2009, 729 electrification projects were executed, which gave electric power to 4,569 localities and benefited a population of 1.6 million inhabitants.
The seminar was an opportunity for experts on energy issues in the region and representatives of the beneficiary communities to engage in dialogue around their knowledge and experiences. The challenge for GVEP International is now to achieve the replicability of our renewable energy projects. Our efforts are focused on strengthening the network by generating a synergy between access to energy, sources of funding and the promotion of energy’s productive uses.
Following the seminar, GVEP International has already scheduled other workshops on renewable energy for the coming months. During the summer there will be a workshop on hydropower in Cusco Peru. Later this year, there will be a workshop on micro finance and energy in Brazil and another one on biofuels in Bogotá, Colombia. In October, GVEP International is organizing Cober IV, a congress on renewable energy where leading stakeholders within the energy sector will meet to review the progresses made in the field of clean energy and energy access in rural markets.
More interviews and presentations can be found on our Youtube channel.
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