The Puno Regional Government will donate approximately 200 solar energy panels to schools and local health care facilities, reported Pachamama Radio on Friday.
The solar panels – valued at $1,500 each – will be distributed throughout March and April. The donation has been made possible through the German technical cooperation program, GTZ.
Except for some parts of its coast, Peru receives a high degree of solar radiation, and has almost an ideal climate for developing solar energy.
The panels, built to last about 20 years, will provide rural communities with electricity and significantly reduce costs and pollution. These communities will no longer have to depend on diesel generators – which require frequent maintenance, use expensive fuel, and release noxious emissions – to produce only a few hours of electricity per day.
In Puno, on Lake Titicaca — a top tourist attraction — on the more than 40 artificial islands made of floating reeds, the Uros communities rely solely on solar panels for energy, installed in similar programs during the 1990s.
