Latin American Energy Organization awards Renewable Energy prize to acciona.org

• The supply of clean energy to more than 60 families in Copal Urco, in the Peruvian Amazonia, is recognized for its innovative model to consolidate sustainable development.

The Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE) has awarded acciona.org the Energy Excellence Prize in the Renewable Energy category for its project to expand communal access to electricity through a photovoltaic microgrid with storage in the indigenous community of Copal Urco (Peru).

The awards ceremony took place in Paraguay, as part of OLADE's IX Energy Week. Jessica Olivares, acciona.org’s manager in Peru, received the prize from Javier Jiménez, Paraguay’s minister of Industry and Commerce, and Alexandra Planas, senior specialist in Energy Efficiency at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). In their first edition, the awards received 71 nominations from 14 countries.

The award-winning acciona.org project started up a photovoltaic plant with storage in 2021 to serve a microgrid in the indigenous community of Copal Urco, in the Peruvian Amazonia. This initiative, now operational, follows acciona.org's pioneering model of providing electricity services with isolated photovoltaic technology in exchange for the involvement of the beneficiary population, through affordable payments and their collaboration in the operation and maintenance of the service.

Preventive maintenance of the facilities is carried out by the community itself, through a  committee created for this purpose, while acciona.org is in charge of repairs, annual checks and the replacement of components, as it keeps managing the service.

With this microgrid, acciona.org has expanded the activity it was already carrying out in the Copal Urco community through residential photovoltaic systems for the most isolated households.

acciona.org has been active in Peru since 2009, mainly focused on developing its rural electrification initiative Light at Home, which is now in its 15^th year and has benefited over 52,000 people in more than 11,000 households in the regions of Cajamarca, Loreto and Cusco.