Let there be light!
Solar energy brightens rural areas in Bolivia
A Bolivian government programme to install solar panels, or "photovoltaic systems", in rural parts of the country has significantly changed people's lives and improved the conditions under which they work, study and relax. Rolando Claros, an economist working for ECLOF Bolivia (ANED) since May 2003 and now responsible for its new Risk Unit, reports.
The "Electrification using Photovoltaic Systems" project aims to provide electricity generated by a clean, non-polluting, renewable source.
Bolivia's Ministry of Energy and Hydrocarbons is carrying out the scheme in partnership with a government corporation known as FONDESIF. This agency finances the rural sector and private enterprises that supply the solar panels, provide installation and technical services, and train local workers to maintain the equipment. ANED specialises in rural credit and has been working in the areas where the Electrification using Photovoltaic Systems project is now being implemented. In recent years, ANED has developed a micro-leasing product (see New Horizons No23, p9) that has proved vital for this latest project.
A simple roof mounted solar panel that provides electricity has transformed life for many rural people in Bolivia.
Project financing
Over the last five years, ANED has established a relationship with FONDESIF and, following the provision of an ECLOF International guarantee for US$1 million, accessed substantial official funds from the agency. It was natural, therefore, that the Ministry of Energy asked ANED to apply to FONDESIF to finance and manage the microcredit component that would cover the installation of the planned 1398 solar panels in the regions of Tarija and La Paz.
The price for each panel was negotiated at US$601 plus the cost of credit. ANED offered the families involved two options for acquiring the systems: an outright loan or microleasing. The majority opted for the latter. The implementation plan also provided for the maintenance of the solar systems once they were installed. To enable this to happen, the suppliers of the panels, in co-operation with ANED, selected and trained local people in the care and repair of the units. This ensured that the necessary skills were available within the local communities when required.
Before the project got off the ground, details of the solar systems, as well as how to acquire and use them, were publicised through radio, fliers and posters.
Success
The 1398 panels have been installed over a four-year period, and ANED has made available a total loan portfolio of US$825,000 for the scheme. The loan recovery rate has been 91%. In many areas where the government's alternative energy project is being implemented, the economic situation is stagnant, people are poor and their prospects depend on the farming of crops that are sensitive to the weather and disease. Although the solar panels generate energy, they do not, of course, generate income. Therefore people's ability to buy the panels depends on what they regularly earn. Considering these limitations, ANED's solar systems programme has proved very successful. Local people enthusiastically accepted the product, as well as the ECLOF loans available for buying it, which was, again, reflected by high loan recovery rates.
More light
Based on the success of its first phase, and at the invitation of Bolivia's Vice-Ministry of Energy, ANED submitted an application for installing 200 further panels in the same areas. This was approved, and implementation will begin this year.
With the experience gained, ANED has become a specialist in financing solar panel projects. As a result, it was invited to participate in a similar programme for the installation of 4,900 panels in the Bolivian departments of Oruro and Potosí. The financing requirement for this is in the region of US$3 million, and ANED is looking for funds to enable them to be part of this project.
Light at night means rural Bolivian children now study in the evening instead of very early in the morning.
Solar panels
Each solar panel system used in Bolivia occupies less than three square metres, and is installed on the roof of a house. The system has a lifetime of about 15 years. The most frequently used solar panel has a rating of 50 watts. After being charged by the sun during the day, the panel can provide enough light for three light bulbs, a radio and a black and white television for three to four hours.
Electricity from a solar panel enables rural people such as Artemio Mesa from the village of Tablería, which is in an isolated region of Bolivia, to have access to education and entertainment programmes through radio and television.
Improved living standards for all
Juan Zacarías Quispe and his wife, Anacleta Molina, have six children; the youngest four, who are aged between 14 and 20, live with their parents in Sascuyo, which is in the 'department' of La Paz. The children attend the local school and also help their parents with daily household and farming chores.
For a living, the family grows coffee and citrus fruits (oranges and mandarins). Mr and Mrs Quispe own about two hectares of land on which they have built an adobe house. They have water but no public electricity supply. Therefore, when the couple heard of the possibility of an ECLOF Bolivia loan to buy a solar panel that would bring light into their house after dark, they quickly put in an application.
Before the solar panel was installed on their roof, the children had to do their homework in the mornings when it was light. Now, they can work in the evenings and are therefore also able to help their parents in the fields during the day. The family's solar panel system gives up to four hours of light each evening, as well as power for a black and white television and a radio. After two years, the solar panel still provides the same amount of power as it did when it was new.
The installation of a solar panel on the Quispe family's adobe home (on roof of rear building) brought electricity and a change of life for them
