“What you want is to lower costs in order to have more products. For example, a 50 kg gas container costs me $ 50,000 approximately, and I use one every week, that is, I spend $ 200,000 monthly. That money now goes to the business”
Public-private alliance
The initiative has been based on the associative work between tenants and public and private entities to ensure that the project benefits the largest number of neighbors in the sector.
“We feel privileged that they were able to come to our request. The best part of this is that we showed the project to the neighbors and they told us, why not? A large part of this has been thanks to Enel X”
Enel X’s mass market deputy manager, Claudio Candia, explains that currently technologies have to be made available for everybody. “This is a nice example. As a company, we are striving for these technologies to be adopted transversally, reaching all of our customers, not only those with greater purchasing power. Today we see how a public-private association can develop with government funding, enabling these technologies to reach all segments”, he points out.
An exemplary neighborhood
“Photovoltaic panels and heaters have been a benefit nobody could have dreamt about. What is being installed this minute is exciting”, indicates Gloria Rivas, impressed, the owner of a shop in Ictinos. She likes the seal these new technologies are giving to her neighborhood, standing out as an area concerned by the environment and the wallet.
“This project has always drawn the attention of our neighbors. We were pioneers and have already been imitated by the San Diego district, because they have realized how beneficial this has been. People must learn that you have to take advantage of the sun, which is free energy, and make good use of it”, asserts Susana Arriaza, who invites more sectors to dare to use new technologies.
At Enel X, the intentions are not to remain only in this area of Santiago, but to take these technologies favoring the environment to more locations in the capital city and the country.
“We see an immense opportunity in being able to replicate what we did in the Ictinos district in different counties of the Metropolitan Region and at the country level. We are filled with pride in being able to incorporate new technologies among entrepreneurs, technologies having to do with energy efficiency and renewable energies, that in turn, deliver such a tangible benefit to the monthly operational cost of these shops, enabling them to grow as a business”