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

Every morning, in a temporary stove in the Rosa Chamami garden, licking cardboard scrap wakes up for flames.

The boxes he once brought home kept 800,000 high -tech solar panel. Now they’re fueled your fire.

Between 2018 and 2024, these panels were founded in Rubí and Clemesí, two large solar plants in the Moquegua region of Peru, about 1,000 kilometers south of the capital Lima. Together they are the country’s largest solar complex and one of the largest in Latin America.

Rosa, from Pampa Clemesí’s small settlement, can see the panel rows that shone under the white projectors. Rubí plant is only 600 meters away.

Nevertheless, the rest of his house – and the rest of his village – remains completely in the darkness that is not connected to the grid that the plant feeds.

None of the 150 residents of Pampa Clemesí could reach the national power network.

A few have solar panels donated by Rubí’s operator Orygen, but most of them cannot meet the batteries and transformatives required to run them. They use torch at night – or they just live in the dark.

Paradox is striking: Rubí solar power plant produces about 440 GWh per year and supplies electricity to 351,000 home. MoqueGUA is an ideal place for more than 3,200 hours of sunlight per year in places where the facility is located, more than most countries.

And in a country that is currently experiencing a renewable energy burst, this contradiction becomes even more sharpening.

In only 2024, electricity generation from renewable energy sources increased by 96%. The sun and wind power are largely connected to copper due to its high conductivity-and Peru is the second largest manufacturer in the world.

“In Peru, the system was designed around profitability. There was no effort to connect the areas with sparse -populated areas.”

Orygen says he fulfills his responsibilities.

We participated in Orygen’s government project to bring electricity to Pampa Clemesí and created a special line for them. In addition, we completed the first stage of the electrification project by 53 Power Tower ready for operation. “He said.

Fragale, the village to provide a line of power to provide approximately 4,000 meters underground cable, he added. Investment of $ 800,000 has been completed.

But the lights still haven’t arrived.

Last step – connecting the new line to individual houses – the responsibility of the government. According to the plan, the mines and the Ministry of Energy should cable approximately two kilometers. It was scheduled to start in March 2025, but did not start.

BBC News Mundo tried to contact the ministry and the Ministry of Energy, but could not get a response.

There is no socket in Rosa’s small house.

Every day, he walks around the village, hoping that someone can leave some electricity to charge his phone.

“This is very important,” he says, he says he needs a device to stay in contact with his family close to the Bolivia border.

Rubén Pongo is one of the few people who can help. In the larger home – with the patio and a few rooms – a group of spotted chicken fights for the roof area between solar panels.

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

Rubén just dreamed of others: a refrigerator. But it only works for up to 10 hours a day and on cloudy days, not at all.

He helped to build the Rubí plant and then worked in maintenance, cleaned the panels. Today, it manages the warehouse and is directed to work by the company, even if the facility is right across the road.

Pan-American highway is prohibited by the Peru law.

Rubén, from the roof, points to a cluster of a building shining from a distance.

“This is the transformer center of the plant, or he says. “It looks like a little illuminated town.”

Residents began to settle in Pampa Clemesí in the early 2000s. These include 70, Pedro Chará. 500,000 panels watched the rise of the Rubí plant almost at the door.

Most of the village was built of materials thrown from the facility. Pedro says that even his beds come from scrap wood.

Water system, no sewage, no garbage collection. The village once had 500 inhabitants, but due to scarce infrastructure, the majority remained-especially during the Covid-19 pandemi.

“Sometimes, after waiting for a long time, after fighting for water and electricity, you just feel like dying. That’s it. It is dying.”

Rosa hurries hurry to her aunt’s house, hoping to capture the end of daylight. Tonight, he cooks dinner for a small neighboring group that shares food.

In the kitchen, a gas stove heats a kettle. Single lights are a solar -energy torch. Dinner sweet tea and fried dough.

“We’re just eating what we can keep at room temperature, Ros says Rosa.

Without cooling, it is difficult to store protein -rich foods.

If fresh products require a 40-minute bus ride to Moquegua, if they can meet.

“But we don’t have money to get on the bus every day.”

Without electricity, many of them take the risk of respiratory disease by cooking with firewood or kerosene in Latin America.

In Pampa Clemesí, the residents use gas when they can meet – wooden when they can’t.

They pray with a torch for food, shelter and water, then eat quietly. 19:00, latest events. No phone. No TV.

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

“If there were electricity, people would come back,” Pedro says. “We stayed because we didn’t have any other options. But we can build a future with light.”

A soft breeze mixes the desert streets and lifts sand. A powder is placed in the lampposts on the main plaza and waits to be installed. The wind indicates that the twilight comes – and soon there will be no light.

For those who do not have solar panels such as Rosa and Pedro, it extends to the birth of the dark sun. The government’s hope that one day would move.

Like many nights before, they are preparing for another evening without light.

But why are they still living here?

Rosa because of the sun, Ros Rosa replied without hesitation.

“We always have sun here.”