‘I like it that there is congruence between what I think and what I do to put my bit and support solutions to conserve the planet .’ Rosibel Solano Montero is very clear when we ask her why she decided to buy a solar water heater and a photovoltaic system. This biologist and professor at the San Isidro Technical College and the Universidad Latina is a convinced environmentalist and her actions go further than just separating household waste for recycling and raising environmental awareness within the family and outside. She is so faithful to her beliefs that she even drives a hybrid car, i.e. a car that runs on self-generated electricity or gasoline. ‘We need to introduce clean energy in order not to be dependent on oil; oil must be imported because we do not have it. But there is plenty of sun here!’

In her decision to buy a water heater and solar panels also influenced the economic factor: making an investment to gain. She confesses that she used to have an electric bill of some 100,000 colones a month. ‘But when we started using the water heater, the bill went down to 60.0000 colones and after the launching of the solar panels in July we have received two invoices from ICE , on the first one we went down from 60.000 to 10.000 colones and for the last one we only had to pay the minimum fee of 2,700 colones. We expect to achieve return on investment in about four years ‘.

Ms. Solano Montero realizes that an investment of 5 million as hers is still a very big investment for many families. In order to avoid that the purchase of a solar energy system constitutes any barrier she suggests the following: ‘The shift to clean energy should be accessible to everyone. It is the job of the Government to encourage it and not only banks offering green credit for that purpose. Support for the introduction of renewable energy in homes, business and industry should be more institutionalized, with state subsidies as an integral part of an ecological culture, ‘ she says.