Argentina’s power grid currently reaches over 99% of its urban population but only 78% of rural residents in a nation of 41 million. A programme called Permer, said to be the world’s largest rural electrification programme to feature rooftop solar arrays, has been launched to alter the balance.
The programme will supply power to residential, commercial and public buildings, $58m will be invested to ensure its success. 70% of the investment will come from a World Bank loan to the Argentine government; the rest is from federal funds.
The money will pay for the installation by mid-2017 of 7,500 off-grid rooftop PV arrays in rural areas of eight provinces in the South American nation. The tender also includes solar heating arrays, micro-wing generation and local mini-grids. grids. The capacity of solar and wind installations sought ranges from 100-200W each, auction winners will be paid to supply equipment and carry out the installation.
Permer was originally implemented in 1999 and the second stage comes as Argentina concludes tenders for over 1GW of utility-scale solar and wind projects as part of the government’s attempt to reach a target to 20% of non-hydro renewable power supply by 2025. The government’s deadline for the project was the 17 October but it has been pushed back to the 31st. More updates as they come.
