The heights of Puno are made for the strong. Its dominant geographical feature is the Chullpia lagoon, which sits at an elevation of 4,000 metres. Up this high, oxygen is thin, and it gets very cold at night.
Around two million Peruvians, including those who live around Chullpia lagoon, live without electricity, which adds to the hardships they face. And the effects of climate change are already being felt in the region, with more unpredictable rain storms, frosts and drought. Unsustainable farming has depleted soils and reduced the amount that farmers can produce.
Juansergio Castro, 28, knew that harnessing the water in the lagoon could improve life for local families, he just didn’t know how.
“I was born in Chullpia, we’ve always had water in our lagoon, and we didn’t know what to do with it,” he says.
The answer came to him after graduating in Agricultural Sciences at Altiplano university. He decided to invent a method to take water from the lagoon and use it to irrigate nearby pastures.
After several months of dedicated work, the Chullpia community has pulled off a first – floating solar panels, 34 of them, attached to a metal and rubber structure that travels the lagoon daily, capturing the sun’s rays.
The solar panels give energy to an engine that fills up eleven water reservoirs built Chullpia. The water is then used to irrigate nearby pasture.
Although its working successfully now, the team faced many hardships in the beginning.
“We’ve worked very hard to build the reservoirs and install the piping. We would be working one day and by the next morning the rain would wash it all away and we’d have to start anew,” Juansergio says.
Reliable irrigation is vital to this region, it guarantees vibrant soils which are used to graze alpacas, llamas and vicuñas.
Thanks to this 21st century system and the ancestral knowledge the community still guards, the pastures are green even in dry seasons, the soil is enriched, alpacas give better quality fibre and a better life for residents.
“We didn’t know what to do when there was no rain. Our livestock would start getting thin, sick, and we’d have to move someplace else. Now with the solar panels, we have water all year,” says Silvia, a local farmer.
The use of renewable energy such as solar and wind across the world is rising as costs come down. Not only does this contribute to greenhouse gas reduction, which is positive for the fight against climate change, but it also satisfies the need for energy of vulnerable communities like Chullpia, that still lack these facilities because of high costs and lack of infrastructure.
Solar technology is enabling the community to prosper while living in harmony with nature.
“Chullpia is like our mother because she is our source of life. If we didn’t have her, we wouldn’t be here. She allows us to keep living and keep us working,” says Juansergio, who hope to inspire other communities to find alternatives to the obstacles they face and work towards their own development.
© 2026 United Nations Development Programme
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