REPIC Cuenca – Solindustrias: Solare Prozesswärme in Cuenca

Solindustrias arose from the need to promote the decarbonization of industrial processes based on the use of fossil fuels in the city of Cuenca.

In 2020, the project "Energy City Cuenca: a participatory municipal planning tool to promote energy transition in Ecuador," funded by the Swiss government through the REPIC (Renewable Energy, Energy and Resource Efficiency Promotion in Developing and Transition Countries) platform and with the participation of the University of Cuenca, proposed a series of projects related to energy use for the city of Cuenca. One of the proposed ideas was to use solar thermal energy in industrial processes.

The Solindustrias project aimed to prepare the technical and economic basis for the successful deployment of solar heat for industrial processes (SHIP) projects in Cuenca by transferring knowledge, piloting and demonstrating SHIP examples, and promoting these technologies to other industrial end users and to local and national governments.

Solindustrias is the first project that has harnessed solar thermal energy to supply heat to industrial processes in Ecuador. The main benefits of the project have been the reduction of emissions in Cuenca's industrial sector, as well as the transfer of technology and knowledge on solar thermal energy through seminars and training to different target groups such as engineering students, installers, and technicians.

The project has been carried out by the Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences (OST) / SPF Institute for Solar Technology, as project manager, the University of Cuenca, as the local coordinator, the company Lácteos San Antonio (Nutri) as the private partner for the installation site, the Environmental Management Commission (CGA, in Spanish) as the public partner for dissemination, communication, and social acceptance, the Municipal Public Company for Economic Development (EDEC EP) as a collaborator in the training and promotion of entrepreneurship phase, and SOLTEC as the company in charge of the installation of the SHIP system.