Central America. More than $400 million could be saved annually by Central American countries if incandescent bulbs are renewed by fluorescent bulbs in homes, or about 12 million bulbs throughout the region.
According to Emilio Rappaccioli, Nicaragua's Minister of Energy and Mines, if these bulbs were changed, about 2,590 kilowatt hours could be consumed throughout the region, this is what Nicaragua consumes today alone. Therefore, they launched the project Basic Guidelines of the Regional Strategy for Efficient Lighting in Central America.
The minister assured that "we need to be more efficient in all aspects, not only in lighting, we need more control and monitoring. The project includes four points: development of minimum energy efficiency standards; policies and mechanisms to support these minimum standards; control, verification and control; and sustainable environmental management of lighting products".
Some countries in the area, such as Nicaragua, Panama and the Dominican Republic promoted in the past the change of bulbs, but the results were not as expected because there was no control or monitoring and the population did not change their bulbs or returned to incandescent ones for their price.
Therefore, the project is now regional, has monitoring tools and links all countries, including Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
