Our foundation: acciona.org

Originally under the name of ACCIONA Microenergía, the foundation was created with the aim of channeling ACCIONA’s social action into access to basic services in developing communities. As a corporate foundation, it works in the company’s strategic lines, focusing on those aspects impacting directly on the human development. acciona.org provides, ensures and improves the access to energy, water & sanitation, as well as it sensitizes the society to both the problem of the lack of those services and the positive impact of getting access to them for the economy, education, health or work of the most underserved communities.

The Luz en Casa (Light at Home) initiative was launched in Cajamarca, the department with the highest rates of poverty and lack of electricity in Peru. Five years later ,it achieved its breakeven point and, thus, its objective of demonstrating that, with an adequate delivery model based on solar home systems, it is possible to bring basic electricity services to low-income households in isolated and dispersed rural communities. Luz en Casa is also developed in Loreto, in the Peruvian Amazonia, and Cuzco. The success of Luz en Casa derived in starting later a rural water & sanitation initiative called Agua en Casa (Water at Home) in Ica.

The Luz en Casa Oaxaca programme starts, in partnership with the Government of Oaxaca, AECID –the Spanish Agency for Development– and its counterpart AMEXCID, with the aim of improving the living conditions of the most remote rural households by supplying them basic electricity services. Later, this initiative is expanded, on one hand, with the EncASa Oaxaca programme to also offer access to safe drinking water, appropriate sanitation and improved cookstoves through systems the users choose in a catalogue of eco technologies and then construct and on the other and, in new areas such as San Luis Potosi.

A project for providing access to energy in refugee camps in Shire (Ethiopia) was launched, in partnership with AECID, the Technical University of Madrid, other Spanish companies and the collaboration of UNHCR, in which acciona.org analysed the feasibility of generating biogas for cooking. This initiative continues with the “Alianza Shire. Access to energy for refugees and host communities” project, co founded by the European Union, in the area of Dollo Ado, in which acciona.org develops a home electricity service model which started to be implemented in 2023.

Luz en Casa is adapted to the Ngäbe-Buglé indigenous region, which has the lowest rate of development in Panama. Luz en Casa Ngäbe-Buglé–implemented together with partners and co funders, such as AECID, European Union or Senacyt -Panama Innovation, Technology and Science National Secretary-, and in coordination with administrative, traditional and community authorities, as well as the Rural Electrification Bureau, provides underserved households with access to the electricity service, which alleviates their condition of poverty through economic savings and favor their productive, educative, domestic or recreational activities.

Starting up of the activity in the country to bring and ensure the access to energy, water & sanitation in the most remote communities. Luz en Casa is adapted to the Chilean household features, especially to those in the Coquimbo region where about 3,000 homes are estimated of being off grid, by considering a technology meeting their power demand and adapting the maintenance fee management to the new available channels. Since 2023, it also develops projects to improve the infrastructure and the management of rural water & sanitation systems.

acciona.org promotes a pioneer initiative to contribute to the reduction of the energy poverty, through collective self-consumption in the modality of surplus with compensation within the existing Spain electricity energy self-consumption regulation. With this aim, it collaborates with municipalities to build solar photovoltaic stations that generates energy destined to reduce the electricity bill of vulnerable households, as well as to reduce the carbon footprint of the municipal facilities.

Light at Home is adapted to the Philippine-island rural communities, especially to those in the Palawan province, where the ratio of un-electrified communities is significative and so they use some energy elements such as pollutant diesel generators, which are expensive of operating too, or solar kits which do not meet the power demand and have not an appropriate maintenance. acciona.org brings the electricity service to those communities through solar home systems together with partners and co funders such as Ayala Foundation and AECID.