The Social Housing and Energy Efficiency Forum (FOVISEE, Buenos Aires, Argentina) has begun the installation of 33 solar water heating systems in a social housing project in the Moreno district of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The solar water heating installations are part of the Project 100 program, which aims to improve the energy efficiency of these social housing units and create the first energy efficient neighborhood in Argentina.

"The three pillars of sustainability (social, environmental and economic) are intimately linked to housing and energy," states FOVISEE. "A home that stops wasting energy will lead to improvements in the quality of life of its inhabitants, improve their economic situation, increase the availability of energy for other sectors, and decrease CO2 emission levels."

"In contexts of poverty, factors such as energy, housing and environment become more urgent matters that need to be specifically addressed: poverty inherently entails a housing problem, energy crisis has a greater impact on poor households, as well as environmental perils fall most heavily upon poorer families, which altogether directly worsens their quality of life."


FOVISEE aims for 100 systems

Under the first phase of the project 10 units were installed, and installation of the next 23 units began on December 21st, 2011. The organization states that it aims to install a total of 100 such systems in the neighborhood.

The first ten homes were also provided with multifaceted energy efficiency retrofits.


Solar thermal systems made in Argentina, China

Partners in Project 100 include Edenor SA (Buenos Aires, Argentina), the German Embassy in Buenos Aires, the Habitat and Energy Research Center at the University of Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina), the National Institute of Industrial Technology (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and the Clinic of Social Studies and Interventions (Buenos Aires, Argentina).

According to Solrico, the solar thermal systems installed were produced by Argentine companies Energe, Ñuke, Vademarco, Innovar and Cenit Solar, with the second phase including some systems produced by Chinese manufacturers.

2012-01-27| Courtesy: FOVISEE | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

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