PERÚ - Observatory for Renewable Energy in Latin America and

Perú- Products I and II
2. STATE OF ART
2.1 Introduction
In Peru, the use of the renewable energy sources started on the 70's, being
encouraged for the oil crisis. At first, the development of projects was in charge
of institutions of training and technological development, like universities. The
first developed applications correspond to water pumping windmills, solar water
heaters and solar driers of agricultural products.
In 1993 the electrification coefficient in Peru was the lowest in South America:
56,8 % at a national scale and 7,7 % in rural areas, being nowadays 86 % at a
national scale and 65 % in rural areas. (MEM, 2011j). The acces to electric power
of the communities located in rural areas is very complicated due to the varied
geography and the low population density.
The Ministry of Energy and Mines of Peru, due to the necessity of electrification
coverage, unroll different programs to provide rural population of electric power.
For its achievement, it executes the implementation of isolated generation
systems, principally with small Hydroelectric Power Stations and Solar
Photovoltaic Plants, as the country has little waterfalls and elevated levels of solar
radiation that makes these systems the cheapest. Electrification projects
developed by the government through the Ministry of Energy and Mines mainly
reflect a social commitment and the individual capacity of these projects has not
yet exceeded a megawatt.
At present, it can be seen that the most important projects developed with
renewable sources are in private hands, encouraged, as it was detailed in chapter
1, by the legal framework that regulates and promotes investment in that kind of
projects. In this section there will be described 2 projects, which have been
selected based on the degree of “success” achieved in the inside market, being
their main characteristic the sustainability.
The first project analyzed in this study is the Hydroelectric Power Station “Santa
Cruz II”, which uses water from the “Rio Blanco” river to generate electricity.
The second project turns out to be the Cogeneration Station “Paramonga I”. This
station uses residual biomass as fuel, resulting from the the use of sugar cane, in
order to generate thermal and electric energy for the processes of its area of
influence and to inject in the SEIN the electricity surplus.
Just like other renewable sources, the projects in mention contribute to the
sustainable development of the involved populations and help the country to
improve the trade balance of hydrocarbons, displacing the electric power
generation of thermic plants that use fossil fuels and contributing to the reduction
of the importing of oil for electricity generation.
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