PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Bolivia close to starting program for solar home systems

Bolivia is developing a program to install 30,000 to 40,000 solar home systems (SHS) by 2010 as part of a $200 million rural electrification plan announced in November by President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada (see PI 12/2002, p. 19).

	© VME / Renan Orellana / Proyecto PNUD/GEF Bol 97/G31
High solar: A new SHS program in the Andean country of Bolivia should easily double the current installed PV capacity of 500 kW.

The $26 million PV project for the landlocked and mountainous South American country includes $12 million from the World Bank, $6 million from the Spanish government, $5 million from the German Development Bank (KfW), and $3 million from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Although 300 SHS will be installed as part of a separate World Bank project starting in August, the Vice-Ministry of Energy (VME) will not open international bidding on the remainder of systems until November. Enrique Birhuet, VME's head of rural electrification projects, says winning bidders will be responsible for installing the systems and providing two years of after-sales service. He expects subsidies to be fixed at about $275 on systems ranging from 10 to 50 W. Birhuet estimates that a 50 W system will cost around $650. A micro-credit loan system will be used to help customers with payment.

At the moment, says Birhuet, there are no import duties on PV equipment, only a 15 percent value-added tax. Birhuet points out that Bolivia already manufactures its own balance-of-system components, including solar batteries, controllers, and lamps, through international licenses.

Nearly three-quarters of the approximately 9,000 SHS already in the country were installed as the result of an $8.3 million VME PV project sponsored by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and GEF in 1999. Bolivia has approximately 500 kW of installed PV, estimates Birhuet.