Page | 1 Energy with Development: 50 years’ Experience of Community-driven Rural Electrification and Future Challenges for COOPEGUANACASTE in Costa Rica Rolando Madriz-Vargas 1,2 , Anna Bruce 1 , Muriel Watt 1 and Yuri Alvarado Rojas 3 1 School of Photovoltaics and Renewable Energy Engineering University of New South Wales, Sydney NSW 2052, Australia 2 Solar Energy Laboratory, Department of Physics Universidad Nacional, Heredia 86-3000, Costa Rica 3 Distribution Management, Santa Cruz Headquarters COOPEGUANACASTE, Guanacaste 11-5150 Costa Rica E-mail: r.madrizvargas@student.unsw.edu.au Abstract Community-based rural electrification initiatives have the potential to overcome some of the barriers to providing modern energy services in off-grid areas in developing countries, especially those barriers relating to social integration of renewable energy technologies, end- user education and local maintenance capabilities. However, experience to date with rural community energy projects has been mixed, and it is not clear which implementation models or community capabilities are required to deliver a sustainable and successful community- driven energy venture (Madriz-Vargas, et al., 2015). A case study of the rural electric cooperative of Guanacaste R.L. (Coopeguanacaste) located in Costa Rica is presented. A capabilities framework is used to examine the Coopeguanacaste experience, current and future challenges, and the main factors influencing the success of the initiative. The aim of this case study is to contribute to the body of knowledge on capabilities needed, lessons learnt and future opportunities for community-based solutions for off-grid rural electrification, especially in developing regions such as Latin America and the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific. 1. Introduction Rural electrification via a cooperative (coop) model has the potential to enable socio- economic development in isolated communities of developing countries, and overcome some of the problems associated with other rural electrification implementation models. Coops initiatives in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Peru and Costa Rica are some examples of how positive have been rural electrification initiatives following this model (Yadoo and Cruickshank, 2010, Yadoo, 2012, ILO, 2014). For instance, Costa Rica presents today one of the highest electrification rates in the Latin American region (OLADE, 2013, WB, 2016), with the rural electric coop movement playing a vital role in this achievement. However, rural electrification using a community-based model is not an easy task. Central barriers around these ventures relates to the lack of local technical, managerial and organizational capabilities (Madriz-Vargas, et al., 2015), and there is a gap in the literature regarding adequate information on successful cases (Bhattacharyya and Palit, 2014). Therefore, we explore the rural electric cooperative of Guanacaste R.L. (Coopeguanacaste). This coop has been a major actor in rural electrification in Costa Rica, with more than 50 years of experience in providing livelihood improvement to rural communities in the Nicoya Peninsula, Guanacaste. Coopeguanacaste has recently received national and international awards recognizing successful business practices and high customer satisfaction levels. Thus, it is a model worth analysing in order to understand the success factors, and potentially replicating them in other community energy projects in developing countries.