The village in Peru that lives in the dark to a massive solar plant

Every morning, Rosa Chamami wakes up to blaze, licking in cardboard pieces in a makeshift stove in her yard.

The boxes she brought home once held 800,000 high -tech solar panels. Now they nourish her fire.

Between 2018 and 2024, these panels were installed in Ruby and Klemesi, two massive solar power plants in the Peru Mokegua area, about 1000 kilometers south of the capital, Lima. Together they form the largest solar complex in the country -and one of the largest in Latin America.

From your home in the small village of Pampa Klemesi, Rose can see the rows of panels, glowing under white spotlights. The Ruby plant is only 600 meters away.

Yet her home – and the rest of her village – remains in complete darkness, unrelated to the net in which the plant feeds.

None of the 150 Pampa Clemesí residents have access to national electricity.

There are several solar panels donated by Ruby’s operator, Orygen, but most cannot afford the batteries and converters needed to make them work. At night, they use torches – or just live in the dark.

The paradox is striking: the Rubí solar power plant produces about 440 GWH per year, enough to supply electricity up to 351,000 homes. Moquegua, where the plant is located, is an ideal place for solar energy, receiving over 3200 hours of sun a year, more than most countries.

And this contradiction becomes even more dramatic in a country that is currently experiencing a boom in renewable energy.

In 2024 alone, the production of electricity from renewable energy sources increased by 96%. Sun and wind energy depends heavily on copper because of their high conductivity-Peru is the second largest producer in the world.

“The Peru system is designed around the profitability. No efforts have been made to connect rarely populated areas,” explains Carlos Gordilo, an energy expert at the University of Santa Maria in Arequipa.

Orygen says he has fulfilled his responsibility.

“We have joined the government project to bring electricity to Pampa Clemesí and have already built a special line for them. We have also completed the first phase of the Electricity Project, with 53 Power Towers ready to work,” said Spiro, the CEO of ORYGEN at Breo, told BBC.

Fragale adds that nearly 4000 meters of underground cable are installed to provide the power line for the village. The $ 800,000 investment has been completed, he says.

But the lights are still not bright.

The last step – connecting the new line to the individual homes – is the responsibility of the government. According to the plan, the Ministry of Mines and Energy should lie about two kilometers of wiring. The work would start in March 2025, but it has not started.

The BBC News Mundo tried to contact the Ministry of Mines and Energy, but did not receive an answer.

The small rose house has no nests.

Every day she walks around the village, hoping for someone to spare some electricity to charge her phone.

“It’s essential,” she says, explaining that she needs the device to keep in touch with her family near the border with Bolivia.

One of the few people who can help is Ruben Pongo. In its bigger home – with interior yards and several rooms – a group of hens fights for the roof space between the solar panels.

“The company donates solar panels to most peasants,” he says. “But I had to buy the battery, the converter and the cables itself – and pay for installation.”

Ruben has something that others dream of: a refrigerator. But he only works for up to 10 hours a day and on cloudy days, not at all.

He helped to build the Ruby plant and later works in maintenance, cleaning the panels. Today he manages the warehouse and is forced to work by the company, although the plant is right on the other side of the road.

The passage of the Pan-American Highway on foot is prohibited by the Peruvian law.

From its roof, Ruben points to the cluster of glowing buildings in the distance.

“This is the plant’s substation,” he says. “It looks like a slightly illuminated city.”

Residents began to settle down in the pamp terminals in the early 2000s. Among them is Pedro Chara, which is already 70. He observes that the Ruby plant of 500,000 panels rises almost to its threshold.

Much of the village is built of discarded materials from the plant. Pedro says even their beds come from a scrap tree.

There is no water system, no sewer, no garbage collection. The village once had 500 inhabitants, but due to scarce infrastructure, the majority remained in particular during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Sometimes, after waiting for so long, fighting for water and electricity, you just feel like dying. That’s all. Dies,” he says.

Rose is in a hurry in her aunt’s house, hoping to catch the last of the daylight. Tonight she cooks dinner for a small group of neighbors who share dishes.

In the kitchen, a gas stove heats the kettle. Their only light is a torch with solar power. Dinner is sweet tea and fried dough.

“We only eat what we can maintain at room temperature,” Rosa says.

Without a refrigerator, protein -rich foods are difficult to store.

Fresh production requires a 40-minute bus trip to Moquegua-if they can afford it.

“But we have no money to accept the bus every day.”

Without electricity, many in Latin America cook with firewood or kerosene, risking respiratory diseases.

In Pampa Clemesí, residents use gas when they can afford it – wood when they cannot.

They pray on a torch for food, shelter and water, and then feed in silence. This is 19:00, their final activity. No phones. No television.

“Our only light is these little torches,” Rosa says. “They don’t show much, but at least we can see the bed.”

“If we had electricity, people would have come back,” Pedro says. “We stayed because we had no choice. But with light we could build a future.”

The soft breeze stirred the desert streets, lifting sand. A layer of dust precipitates on the slats on the main site, which is waiting to be installed. The wind signals that dusk is coming – and there will be no light soon.

For those without solar panels, such as rose and pero, the darkness extends to sunrise. Is it hoping that the government will act for one day.

Like so many nights before, they prepare for another evening without light.

But why still live here?

“Because of the sun,” Rose replies without hesitation.

“Here, we always have the sun.”