Solar Panels to Reduce Electricity Bills in Panama

With this type of system, their consumption will decrease, and they can even get a credit to help them. Reducing the electricity gaps in the country is not just about bringing electricity to homes, but about designing a plan to improve their living conditions because many families do not have the resources to cover the cost of this service. He detailed that this project will benefit more than 300 homes, that is, 1,000 people who, although they already have an electricity connection, cannot afford to pay for the service, so they sacrifice other needs such as buying food and medicine. The general director of the OER, Antonio Clement, mentioned that the installation of these solar panels on the interconnected aqueducts seeks to place the greatest load on the system to generate significant savings on electricity bills. Clement indicated that one of his priorities for the coming year is to improve the living conditions of minors; therefore, they will include schools in difficult-to-access areas in this program, facilitating their studies and development. Therefore, the Rural Electrification Office (OER) will, starting in January, inaugurate the first solar panel system in rural aqueducts, whose objective is to reduce consumption among those already connected to the grid and, consequently, decrease billing. "For the first time, we have considered some cases, not all because we cannot do it for everyone, but we have verified that they really do not have money to buy food; these are human beings and we will try to help them," he stated. "That little money they had to pay now serves them for something else," he told Panamá América. The first of these panels will be installed in the province of Coclé, near the facilities of the Technological University of Panama (UTP), in the first half of January, and will be replicated in other provinces of the country for the benefit of the most needy.