Renewable energy powers up across Central America
Over the past year the Leicester Masaya Link Group (LMLG) has been involved in a fascinating project to raise awareness about and implement renewable energy technologies in Nicaragua and Central America. The project, funded by the European Union and Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office, involves working with a rapidly expanding network of partners across the region (with an emphasis on Nicaragua and more recently Guatemala) to identify and overcome the political, social, cultural and economic barriers to developing renewable energy.
The EnergyCentral project began as a collaborative initiative involving the LMLG, Loughborough University, Lisbon’s Institute of Mechanical Engineering (IDMEC), and Nicaraguan and Central American organisations. Partners in the region include ADIC (which is implementing a solar panel project in Masaya), AMUNIC (the association of Nicaraguan municipalities), the municipality of Masaya and the Science Faculty of UCA (Universidad Centroamericana).
The first EnergyCentral workshops were held in Masaya in February, followed by a national workshop in Managua in May. These events brought together technicians, academics, entrepreneurs and civil society organisations to discuss how to overcome the major barriers to the growth of renewable energy identified in the workshops and research on the sector.
Participants represented international donors and different levels of Nicaraguan society, including national and local government and community representatives. An important outcome was the formation of a network of individuals and institutions committed to working together to tackle the obstacles, including key partner AMUNIC, which represents all Nicaraguan municipalities. A fundamental element of the EnergyCentral strategy is its focus on local government and community partners.
The project’s final stage has involved building links between similarly motivated individuals, institutions and networks in Guatemala and other parts of the region through a two-day symposium at the University Rafael Landivar in Guatemala City in October. The Institute of Agricultural, Environmental and Natural Resources (IARNA), the British embassy and the Guatemalan NGO Fundación Solar (Solar Foundation) all played an active role.
The symposium attracted around 70 participants from a similar range of sectors as in Nicaragua, including delegates from Chile and Mexico. It resulted in the creation of a regional network of people interested in promoting renewable energy. Although the project is coming to the end of its first phase, the momentum it produced has led to a range of other proposals for taking this important initiative forward.
