Solar panel projects for rural electrification and submersible pumps inaugurated

Last Saturday marked the beginning of a new era for several communities in the municipality of Higüey, La Altagracia province, with the implementation of home electrification projects and submersible pumps powered by solar panels.

These projects will provide clean energy for the essential and productive activities of the inhabitants of this area of the country.

The Minister of Energy and Mines, Antonio Almonte, led this initiative to benefit 260 residents in Chacaro, El Aguacate, and El Valle de los Algarrobos, whose homes were electrified with an investment of RD$2.9 million.

“The fight against poverty, inequality and injustice includes providing the communities with services that are already vital today, and constitute almost a human right and one of these is the electric service that these communities already have”, expressed Almonte.

According to the technical sheet, photovoltaic panels with a total power of 10,395 KWp were installed for 27 homes in El Aguacate and El Valle de los Algarrobos, together with 27 inverters, batteries, regulators, and photovoltaic solar lamps.

In Chacaro, a power of 9,625 KWp was installed for 25 homes, with the same amount of solar panels, batteries, inverters, regulators, and solar photovoltaic lamps.

In addition, nine wells were electrified with green energy, with a total capacity of 29.26 KWp in localities such as Jina Jaragua, Chinchin, Amacey I, Casa Sombra, La Cruz and El Aguacate, benefiting 775 residents. The work represented an investment of RD$3.8 million.

An extension of electrical networks was also inaugurated in Andres Boca Chica, including the rehabilitation and extension of networks in La Altagracia and Los Tanquecitos.

This extension comprises five 1500-meter poles of medium voltage with a 37.5 KVA transformer. 52 connections and seven 250 W LED lamps were installed at a total cost of RD$1.2 million.

Severa Rodríguez, a neighbor of Jina Jaragua, was grateful for the implementation of the electrification project, even though she saw it as an unattainable dream.

“Before, to drink cold water, we had to go to Higüey to buy ice. Now, we can have a refrigerator or turn on a radio without any problem because the sunlight provides us with energy and we have to be grateful for that,” said Rodríguez.

Lucas Guerrero thanked on behalf of the community for the support provided by the authorities in this initiative that opens a range of options for the implementation of businesses, simply by having a neuralgic resource for the advancement of the communities, such as energy.

“We went from darkness to light. Our lives changed for the better and that of our families. We, the old people who were born and raised in a town without the bare minimum, today we are witnesses of something we never thought would happen,” Guerrero said.

The minister said that President Luis Abinader and the government team, especially in the energy sector, are committed to extending the electricity supply to all rural and suburban communities that lack this service.

He also informed that this effort aims to improve the precarious conditions in which some communities have electricity, strengthening and expanding the capacity of their services through projects such as this one.