Project Overview

Peru Solar 2010 - Overview

Nueva Unión – Location of the Peru Solar 2010 Solar Installation

UPDATE!! THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN COMPLETED. Please see project summary for Peru Solar 2010 pictures and information.

In January of 2010, Nusol Capacity Fund began an extensive search for the partnering community for the 2010 project offering. Numerous candidate communities throughout the country were visited and evaluated via a strict set of selection criteria. Below are just a few of the many aspects analyzed:

• Capacity Building Potential: Paramount among the evaluation criteria was the ability for the installation of a solar electric system to improve a community’s capacity to address their own needs, goals, and ambitions.

• Community Support: Extensive community interaction was required to ensure that the proposed solar installation was valued among the individual community members. Questionnaires were distributed amongst households and ultimately a community vote was utilized to ensure full support of the project.

• Physical Site Limitations: Each candidate community underwent a detailed site survey. Soil conditions, shading, weather patterns, and numerous installation variables were reviewed.

After over a month of searching, Nusol selected the town of Nueva Unión as its partnering community for the 2010 project. Located 12 miles northwest of the town of Huacaybamba in the remote mountains of central Peru, Nueva Unión is home to roughly 350 people. To access the village, one must hike approximately 2 hours through mountainous terrain. This limited accessibility has isolated Nueva Unión from Peru’s power grid rendering over 70 homes, a small medical post, and an initial and primary school without access to electricity.

Children of Nueva Unión – Shown in front of primary school

This coming December, NuSol will travel to Nueva Unión and install a 2640W off-grid solar electric power generating system. The system will provide power to a nearby school and to an LED lantern charging station. The power supplied to the school will run lighting for night time classes in addition to several laptop computers which Nusol will also provide. The remainder of the power generated by the system will be used to recharge over 70 battery powered LED lanterns. It is the intent of Nusol to provide one LED lantern to each home in the community allowing for a significant reduction in expenditures on candles, kerosene and disposable batteries.

Throughout the installation process, NuSol will work hand in hand with Nueva Unión citizens to further their understanding of solar technology. In turn, community members will have the training and skill set required to successfully maintain, operate, and repair their solar electric system, thereby furthering the sustainability of their community.