A nonprofit is working in Peru to get power to remote communities using solar technologies. An estimated 3 million people in Peru don’t have access to power, largely because of the remoteness of the villages where they live.“From the Andes to the Amazon, folks are really spread out,” said Michael Callahan, CEO of PowerMundo, a nonprofit that distributes off-grid clean energy products from lanterns to micro home solar systems.
The nonprofit has been serving the nascent off-grid market for eight years. For most of that time, it has distributed solar LED lanterns. With a recent $300,000 USAID grant through that agency’s Development Innovation Ventures program, PowerMundo will scale up its pay-as-you-go offering.
Latin America and the Caribbean have areas where PowerMundo is hoping that access to mobile payments will also start to open up the markets where people have intermittent grid connections, especially on the outskirts of Lima. Callahan said that many of its products, such as the battery-backed solar home systems, are already compatible to be charged by either solar power or a grid connection.
The organization is working primarily in Peru, and has replicated its model with another organization in Honduras. It has also distributed some products in Bolivia, which would be its next target market beyond Peru.
