In the 18 months since the launch of its project Improving Access to Clean Energy in Latin America, ECPA grantee Trees, Water & People (TWP) has reached over 15,000 people in Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador with energy efficient and renewable energy solutions. In Honduras, over 2500 small scale solar lighting and mobile phone charging systems have been distributed in off-grid areas, 500 Justa clean coosktoves have been installed, and over 100 entrepreneurs have been trained to construct cookstoves and sell solar products to strengthen their livelihoods. In El Salvador, 450 Justa clean cookstoves have been constructed for the initiative.

In Nicaragua, ground has been broken on TWP’s Center for Biomass Energy and Climate Change, which will include classrooms, dorms, work areas, and will serve as a demonstration and training center for international and regional university students, practitioners of rural development and alternative energy, and for community members in the region seeking to adopt practices and technologies that aid their adaptation to climate change.

TWP’s solar energy distribution program, in partnership with Honduran Development Association (AHDESA), is active in 11 of Honduras’ 18 departments, with over 20 institutional distribution partners, and 90 individual vendors. The individual vendors were selected in partnership with USAID Proparque, a program that is supporting livelihoods in regions surrounding 10 national parks in Honduras. Institutional partners are mostly rural agricultural cooperatives that offer financing for the products to their members – largely off-grid, last-mile communities.

TWP is proud to received the 2013 Energy Globe National prize for its work in Honduras, and is seeking to leverage this award and remaining ECPA funds to reach the highest number of off-grid households in Central America as possible, with products that improve health, increase energy efficiency, and save families money. For the official announcement of the award, please visit www.treeswaterpeople.org.