Compañia Hondureña de Energia Solar, S.A. de C.V.

Solar power for the Honduran grid

Honduras

Green

Promotes and/or supports the protection of the environment. An example of this is an organic farming cooperative.

Compañía Hondureña de Energía Solar, SA de CV (COHESSA), founded in 2012, is a solar energy company established to build, own and operate the solar power plant ‘Valle Solar’ in the province of Nacaome in southern Honduras. Honduras is the second poorest country in Central America, with the World Bank estimating that 62.8% of the population lived below the national poverty line in 2014.

In 2014, COHESSA signed a 20-year power purchasing agreement (PPA) with the government-owned facility Empresa Nacional de Energía Eléctrica (ENEE), ensuring a long-term buyer of all clean energy put into the Honduran grid. The PPA is part of a wider strategy to reduce the country’s dependence on thermal power plants. Valle Solar provides more reliable, cleaner and less expensive sources of energy.

Oikocredit has invested US$ 11 million as part of a US$ 120 million project with International Finance Corporation (IFC) to construct and equip the Valle Solar plant and put it into operation. The investment is in line with Oikocredit’s renewable energy strategy, which focuses on sustainable investments with a high development impact.

Compañía Hondureña de Energía Solar, SA de CV has been an Oikocredit partner since 2016.