July 08, 2021 Reimagining energy

On July 8^th, we held the webinar “Reimagining Energy”, in which we had a conversation with social entrepreneurs Ana Coll and Alex Eaton, who perform leading roles in Iluméxico and Sistema Bio, respectively. 

Ana explained how Iluméxico, using an inclusive finance model, offers affordable and user-friendly solar energy systems to rural communities that don’t have access to the electrical grid. Alex, on the other hand, provided details on Sistema Bio’s intervention model, which focuses on the commercialization to farmers of a biodigester that takes organic waste and transforms it into renewable biogas and a powerful organic fertilizer. Both social businesses have impacted the lives of thousands of families in the countries where they operate, promoting positive change with regards to access to basic services, education, health and better opportunities for economic growth.

Both social entrepreneurs shared their expansion plans to other countries in Latin America and Asia, and the challenges that these scalability efforts entail. As to the future of renewable energies in Latin America, both social entrepreneurs coincided in that there is huge potential for further growth of the sector in the region, but better and more coordinated public policies from the government are needed.