Swiss Partners
First Climate AG, Zurich
www.firstclimate.com
Urs Brodmann
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Documentation
Swiss Contribution
First Climate Switzerland is a service provider in the fields of climate change mitigation, renewable energy and sustainable development. Swiss know-how transfer will include First Climate’s expertise related to renewable energy financing and implementation, as well as access to international climate and carbon finance.
Description
The grid connection of many rural communities in Argentina is too weak to support the country’s increasing electricity demand, leading to an unstable power supply and an increasing need for back-up diesel generators. As the expansion of centrally supplied electricity grids is expensive, First Climate and the local partners HINS work together to contribute to the broad implementation of decentralized renewable energy solutions in rural areas.
Results
Both pilot plants were built as planned with the participation of the respective municipalities. However, there was a slight setback with regard to financing through carbon credits, as the bilateral agreement between Argentina and Switzerland did not materialise. Discussions are currently underway with Gold Standard with a plan to financing further projects through the sale of CO2 certificates in the future.
Impacts
The REPIC project contributed to the installation of 2 PV systems with a combined power of 146.5 kWp. Together, the systems generate about 247,000 kWh of clean energy yearly, which saves about 62 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Both systems currently supply about 98 households. In addition, 5 new jobs were created and a total of 13 people were trained so that the maintenance of the plants can be guaranteed.