SIEMENS

In the village of Adjuntitas Dos in the highlands of the state of Querétaro, Mexico, time seems to have stood still. Like everyone in the village, Artemio Juárez, the village elder, works his steep, stony fields with a hoe, carrying seed in a bag slung over his shoulder. His main means of transportation is a wheelbarrow.

There are no cars or trucks in this village of about 100 inhabitants, which is located 200 kilometers north of Mexico City at an altitude of 1,800 meters. The village’s 14 households have neither access to the public power grid nor running water, nor can they connect to a fixed or mobile communications network. “We’re somehow lost up here in the hills,” says Lucía Cruz, Artemio Juárez’s wife. “We have no roads and nobody has an electric light.” Like nearly 30,000 other people in the state of Querétaro, Cruz and her family have had to get by without electricity all their lives.

But those days are now over. Since the summer of 2011, a little lamp goes on in the Cruz family’s home every evening. An Osram compact fluorescent light bulb illuminates the table where they eat, and there’s another bulb over the hammock used by Bernardino, the couple’s eight-year-old son. Electricity for the bulbs comes from a solar module on the roof.

As part of project “Luz Cerca de Todos” (Light close to everyone), Siemens technicians have installed 182 solar modules in Adjuntitas Dos and nine other communities within a radius of 50 kilometers. They have also delivered new batteries that store the electricity generated during the day. For the people in the rugged, picturesque mountains, this has been like “daybreak in the evening,” says Juárez. Now Bernardino can read a little before going to sleep, and his older sister has more time to do her homework. The two children are looking forward to the day when they will be able to listen to music and watch television — and to find out about what’s happening in the world.

While people in industrialized nations take power from electrical sockets for granted, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that 20 percent of the world’s population still has no access to electricity — that’s a total of 1.4 billion people, most of whom live in Africa and South Asia. But even in Mexico, where electrification had reached almost 97 percent of the population by 2010, 3.5 million people still live without electricity. Most of them are residents of rural communities in remote locations, like Adjuntitas Dos.

A World Bank report has shown that electricity can greatly improve living conditions in such rural areas. Electrical power has positive effects on education, health, and economic development, according to the report. Electric lighting enables school children to study in the evening. Using light bulbs instead of candles improves air quality in the home, and having television helps people to stay informed about health and agricultural issues. What’s more, electrification often makes it possible to start mini businesses. For example, a villager with a refrigerator can rent space in it or sell cold beverages.

Helping People Live Better Lives. Plans call for Querétaro to continue to improve services. Governor José Calzada plans to supply all residents of the state with power by 2013. Siemens has played a crucial role in the initial steps of this project. The company’s Energy Sector not only opened a new power plant in Querétaro in 2011 but also provided the €230,000 needed to pay for the solar modules that have been installed to date. It also organized their installation. “In addition to creating jobs and expanding our business in the region, we also want to contribute to the development of the communities. That’s why we organize programs that improve people’s quality of life,” says Louise Goeser, CEO of Siemens Mesoamérica, who points out that Siemens wanted to set an example and show that it pays to support social development. But meeting these goals was not easy. Solar panels had to be transported into the mountains. It took eight weeks to install them in ten villages, some of which are a two-hour walk from the next road. The work was complicated by periods of torrential rainfall. For project leader José Hernández the project has a powerful symbolic character. “The inhabitants of Querétaro represent all people who have no access to electricity. We want to show how electricity can bring about a decisive change in their lives,” he says.

Seeing the Light. Free power in Adjuntitas Dos is enabling villagers to save a lot of money. “People here used to spend 40 percent of their income on candles, batteries, and fuel,” says Hernández. “They used car batteries to provide electricity for TV viewing, for example.” Some of the farmers are using the savings to hire workers. “They can cultivate larger areas, achieve bigger harvests, and improve their financial situation,” Hernández reports. Having light in the evening helps village children to study for longer periods. “The kids have to help their parents by working in the fields after school. They usually don’t get home until it’s dark outside,” says Hernández. Before, light was such a precious commodity that families considered it extravagant to light candles so that children could do their homework. “Now the kids are doing their homework, and their parents are in a better position to help them,” Hernández says. In addition to providing solar power systems for private households, Siemens also installed ten slightly bigger community systems in schools, churches and storage buildings that supply enough electricity for a refrigerator or a computer.

A report from the World Bank shows that electricity in rural areas is used primarily for lighting, followed by televisions and refrigeration. Electrical appliances and devices are still rare in the mountains of Querétaro. “Some households have a radio, but very few have a TV or mobile phone,” says Hernández.

When electricity became available, the first thing residents of Adjuntitas Dos had to learn was how to use it intelligently. Typically, a family will have enough solar power for four light bulbs and one radio for about four hours. “We explained to them that they would have to turn off the light and radio when leaving a room,” Hernández recalls. “That disappointed them a little at first, but on the whole they’re very happy about this change.”