The Norwegian Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund) and Sunshine, a subsidiary of Losko, signed a strategic alliance that will facilitate financing of solar energy projects in Costa Rica and countries in Central America.

Three solar success stories stand out in Costa Rica for having benefitted from this initiative.

Norfund, founded in 1997 by the Norwegian government, has as its primary goal to serve as a strategic minority investor for energy-related projects in developing countries, thus contributing to the economic and social development of the regions in which it operates.

“Norfund aims to strengthen entrepreneurship in developing countries. In Central America we support the clean energy and financial institutions sectors. At Sunshine, we see an interesting opportunity for Central America to contribute to the fortification of a qualified company, which offers clean, proven, reliable and competitive energy generation and storage technologies at competitive prices,” said Arnold Morice, Norfund’s Clean Energy investment manager for Central America in a statement.

One of the photovoltaic solar energy projects that has received support from the initiative in Costa Rica includes the downtown San José Colonial Hotel which generates 19kW of solar power from its 64 solar panels .

“Sunshine has given us great assistance from start to finish, with a fairly simple financing option (SunLease). We currently pay 30 percent of what our electricity bill used to be,” said Silvia Vargas, Colonial Hotel’s general manager.

Another solar energy project that has taken advantage of the Norfund-Sunshine partnership include the Veragua Rainforest Research and Adventure Park whose 176 photovoltaic modules and 24 batteries have allowed for savings of about 450 liters of diesel per month that were used for a generator.

And finally, the installation of 75 solar panels at the offices of Kirebe at City Place in Santa Ana is generating 24kW.