More on rural electrification

It might be interested to examine whether a simple small-scale wind turbine is sufficient for providing power to a small community and consider the costs of implementation.  The cost of a small 2.5 kW wind turbine could be about 3000 soles.  The alternatives include generators, solar panels, connecting the community to the electric grid, or remaining without electricity. 

Considering the last alternative listed first, for a family to remain without electricity, but want to have light to do things after dark, a family would pay around 1 to 2 soles per day for candles, leading to 30 to 60 soles per month.  In more or less one year, they would end up paying the same as for a wind turbine that could power lights for longer than these candles would last. 

Generators are quite popular for families and businesses in Peru without electricity.  These can cost about 500 soles per month to operate.  This means that after six months, the amount paid to operate a generator for that time could have been used on a turbine which would produce free energy after this time. 

We can also think about connecting communities without electricity to the national grid, however, for communities with only a few number of houses, this can be very costly per family, and be much more expensive than implementing a small wind turbine since these families typically do not need much power.

Solar panels are an option.  Some disadvantages to consider are maintenance (keeping them clean), and cost.  Bi-energy systems with solar and wind can be an excellent idea, especially if there is local support for both systems.

There is also always the question of how the technology for rural electrification is paid for.  Of course the families can pay if they are able to either by paying the money up front or a little at a time (and since they can currently pay for candles, the latter method is obviously feasible).  This is similar to how the stoves in Guatemala were sold by the company; they priced the stove with a payment plan that the families would not see any difference in what they were paying per month but would only see the difference in having a newer device.  And technologies that can be used to automatically meter and control the payments can help.  Another method is to obtain government money for electrifying rural communities.  This could be advantageous for politicians to support to get the support of communities, but the implementation of getting government funds to actually pay for the technologies can be difficult.  

Voy a escribir en español mas tarde.