OUR EXPERIENCE AT THE SERVICE OF COMMUNITITES WITHOUT MEANS
Global figures that give us motivation
11 %
of the population lacks access to safe drinking water
18 %
of the population has to travel to access drinking water
30 %
of the population does not have proper sanitation facilities
15.5 %
of the population does not have access to electricity
13 %
of the population has access to electricity without guaranteed service
40 %
of the population cooks with firewood, charcoal, manure or coal
Familiar faces to help us in our purpose
Creation of the Foundation
Originally under the name of ACCIONA Microenergía Foundation, the foundation was created with the aim of channelling ACCIONA's social action into access to basic services in developing countries. As a corporate foundation, our activity focuses on the company’s strategic lines, promoting the to basic energy, water & sanitation services and infrastructures.
The foundation promotes and directs development cooperation projects, which it also disseminates, with the aim of making society aware of the lack of access to these services in the world and the positive impact they generate in the economy, education, health or work of the most underserved communities.
PERU
The Luz en Casa programme was launched in Cajamarca, the department with the highest rates of poverty and lack of electricity in Peru. Five years later the programme achieved its breakeven point and, thus, its objective of demonstrating that it is viable, sustainable and affordable to bring quality basic electricity services, through solar home systems and a pay-for-service model, to low-income households in isolated and dispersed rural communities. Since 2017, Luz en Casa is also developed in Loreto, in the Peruvian Amazonia, having been adapted to the cutting-edge technology and the singular area of implementation.
MEXICO
The Luz en Casa Oaxaca programme was brought to Mexico, in partnership with the Government of Oaxaca, AECID –the Spanish Agency for Development– and its counterpart AMEXCID, with the aim of improving the living conditions of rural households living in poverty and extreme poverty by supplying third-generation home photovoltaic systems to provide them with basic electricity services. Today, this initiative is expanded with the EncASa Oaxaca programme to also offer access to safe drinking water, appropriate sanitation and improved cookstoves through systems the users choose in a catalogue of eco technologies.
ETHIOPIA
A project for providing access to energy in refugee camps in Shire (Ethiopia) was launched, in partnership with AECID, the Technical University of Madrid, other Spanish companies and the collaboration of UNHCR, in which acciona.org analysed the feasibility of generating biogas for cooking. This initiative continues with the “Alianza Shire. Access to energy for refugees and host communities” project, cofunded by the European Union, in which acciona.org develops the off-grid component with access to electricity through solar home systems and promotion of micro businesses to give related services.
PANAMA
Luz en Casa is adapted to the Ngäbe-Buglé indigenous region, which has the lowest rate of development in Panama. The Luz en Casa Ngäbe-Buglé programme –implemented in public-private partnership for development with AECID– implies an intense work with national, regional, local and indigenous authorities, as well as being coordinated with the Rural Electrification Bureau in the country. All these with the aim of providing the most remote and underserved households with access to the electricity basic service, which alleviates their condition of poverty through economic savings and time for productive, educative, domestic or recreational activities.
Chile and Spain
The foundation’s first Chilean initiative will be developed in the country’s Coquimbo region, where currently almost 3,000 homes have no connection to the electricity grid.
This pilot project consists of providing electricity to 50 households that depend on gasoline-powered generators as a source of energy, which provide them with a maximum of 3-5 hours of electricity per day, at a monthly cost that can amount to almost half of their income. acciona.org will replace these fossil fuel engines with safer, more efficient and environmentally sustainable home photovoltaic systems.
acciona.org will install a photovoltaic solar plant designed for collective self-consumption in San Juan del Puerto (Huelva, Spain). The project, created to help combat energy poverty and reduce the local carbon footprint, has been approved by the municipality’s council and is expected to be operational during the first half of 2022.
acciona.org will contribute up to 50% of the electricity produced towards helping 50 families living in energy poverty to reduce their electricity bills. The rest of the energy generated by the plant will be used to supply local council buildings.
Philippines
acciona.org begins its work in the Philippines with the "Lights at Home El Nido" project, which consists of the installation of residential photovoltaic systems in 100 homes in the town of El Nido, in the province of Palawan.
These systems will provide more than eight hours of renewable electricity a day to families who until now had no hope of connecting their homes to the conventional electric grid. Furthermore, this will also give them access to other essential services such as charging cell phones or computers and using electronic devices.
ACCIONA.ORG AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS
NO POVERTY
Almost 64,000 people in poverty and extreme poverty saved more than EUR 950,000 in alternative energy and were able to use more than 8.2 million additional hours to carry out their daily activities, because of electricity and avoiding going to get energy elements and water.
HEALTH AND WELLBEING
Some 23 million hours of available electric lighting in households reduced diseases related to smoke and the low intensity light of candles, kerosene, firewood etc. In addition, reliable water and sanitation systems prevented users from diarrhoeal diseases by improving health and hygiene in the home and community centres.
QUALITY EDUCATION
More than 20,500 school-age users spent about 1 million additional hours doing their homework, remaining in primary education for an additional 0.4 years and increasing secondary school enrolment by 11 %.
GENDER EQUALITY
About 950 women who participated in the committees acciona.org promotes to represent every community are part of the nearly 22,400 users whose (paid or unpaid) work at home was facilitated and more than 10,600 girls who did their homework with adequate lighting. In addition, 3 women owning small shops in reference localities in the operation areas offered supplies and services to the surrounding communities.
CLEAN WATER AND SANITATION
acciona.org benefited a total of 124 households, 5 schools, 2 municipal agencies and 1 health centre with equitable access to safe drinking water and sanitation through reliable systems and access to safe cooking
CLEAN AND GREEN ENERGY
acciona.org benefited more than 15,100 households with affordable, sustainable and reliable access to basic electricity through solar home systems, as well as 56 households with access to improved cookstoves.
DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
23 businesses run by small local entrepreneurs to provide supplies and services related to the systems provided, as well as electricity provided to users with small businesses in their homes, contributed to the employment and economic growth of the communities served.
INDUSTRY, INNOVATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
acciona.org continues implementing its innovative service delivery models, adapting them to the operation areas and basing them on the installation of solar home systems to access to electricity and the offer of a catalogue of eco technologies to access to water, sanitation and cooking in an affordable, reliable and sustainable way.
REDUCED INEQUALITIES
acciona.org increased the number of rural and indigenous population that has access to basic services, having reached more than 950 communities. Thus, it continued to close the inequality gap between urban and rural areas, reducing the neglected rural and indigenous population in Peru, Mexico and Panama.
RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION
The combination of home photovoltaic systems in operation avoided the emission of more than 5,218 t CO2, as well as the use and uncontrolled disposal of 22 t of batteries, due to the use of efficient lamps and electric appliances connected to these systems
CLIMATE ACTION
The reliable water and sanitation systems mentioned improve sources of supply and allow water to be reused and saved. In contexts of recurring drought – such as the Mexican state of Oaxaca where acciona.org implemented these solutions – they are a tool to increase resilience and adaptation to climate change.
PARTNERSHIPS TO ACHIEVE THE GOALS
acciona.org collaborated with the Spanish Cooperation and local, regional and state authorities in Peru, Mexico and Panama, and worked together with other public and private companies and organisations sharing the same goals, such as those associated with the Universal Energy Access Board, the Latin American Platform for Sustainable Energy and Equity (PLESE) and the Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE)
NEWSROOM
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