The installation of seven solar panel systems at the Paquera and Cóbano Association of Water Supply and Sewerage Systems (ASADAS) in Puntarenas will cause savings of up to 50% in the monthly electricity bills for these institutions to pump water for the rural aqueduct.
Currently, the ASADAS of Pueblo Nuevo, Río Grande, Bajos Negros, Paquera, Gigante, Valle Azul and San Isidro in the Central Pacific provide water to 1,079 people and allocate approximately 70% of their income to the payment of electricity, mainly for the water pumping system.
With the installation of photovoltaic systems in rural aqueducts, solar radiation will be used to generate energy, start the pump and distribute water to the communities, thereby reducing the use of electricity.
With this project we not only become sustainable organizations, using clean energy to pump water, but we are helping them to improve the supply to their communities, since now they can invest the savings in infrastructure,”
said Michelle Coffey, delegate of the CRUSA Foundation.
The initiative implemented in Paquera and Cóbano is part of a larger project called Reconversion of 15 ASADAS into sustainable organizations based on energy innovation, whose impact will be extended to eight aqueducts of rural Nicoya, which will also install solar panels.
The project to transform the ASADAS into energy-saving organizations is executed by the Center for Environmental Law and Natural Resources (CEDARENA), with the support of the Costa Rican Institute of Aqueducts and Sewers (AyA), within the framework of the The Costa Rica-US Foundation for Cooperation (CRUSA), the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) and the Weaving Development governmental program.