Peru has initiated a new solar panel program that will provide electricity to more than 2 million of its poorest residents, Don Lieber over at Planetsave has reported. Currently, only 66% of Peru’s 24 million people has access to electricity, according to the country’s Energy and Mining Minister Jorge Merino. By 2016, the plan is to provide electricity to 95% of residents through The National Photovoltaic Household Electrification Program. “This program is aimed at the poorest people, those who lack access to electric lighting and still use oil lamps, spending their own resources to pay for fuels that harm their health,” he said. The first phase will install 1,601 solar panels in the Contumaza province, enough to power 126 communities throughout Cupisnique, San Benito, Chilete, Tantarica, Yonan, San Luis, and Contai. The second phase of the project will involve 12,500 PV systems to provide 500,000 households, about 2 million people, with free electricity. The overall cost will be around $200 million. Peru has incredible access to sunlight, so this is the perfect way to take advantage of natural resources while providing a valuable service to residents of all income levels. Makes you wonder why more countries can’t do the same, doesn’t it? Source - www.the9billion.com
Solar power in Peru
Light Up The World - Solar Energy Project in Alto Nanay, Peru
A city called Masdar City is currently being built in United Arab Emirates that will rely entirely on renewable energy sources, with a sustainable, zero-carbon and zero-waste ecology.
Masdar City is a project which is being built by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, a subsidiary of Mubadala Development Company, with the majority of seed capital provided by the government of Abu Dhabi. Designed by the British architectural firm Foster and Partners, the city will rely entirely on solar energy and other renewable energy sources, with a sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste ecology.
A 148-foot tower draws cool air down to create a perpetual breeze in the courtyard of the Masdar Institute.
The city is an $18 billion project in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and is scheduled to be completed by 2015. It will be home to 40,000 residents within a two square mile radius, where cars are simply not allowed. Each building in the city being toted as carbon-neutral and residents are transported about via PRTs (Personal Rapid Transit) pods.
Take an exclusive tour of Masdar City -- a high tech, low carbon sustainable city of future located near Abu Dhabi:
