Over the weekend US President Barack Obama announced he will be having solar panels installed in the White House, a symbol of his green-energy campaign.
Solar-energy panels were first installed in the White House in 1979 upon President Jimmy Carter’s orders, to jump-start his program of using solar energy and other energy alternatives to cut back the US’s growing oil demand. He offered tax credits to anyone who would buy and install solar-energy systems, and other incentives for energy conservation. But at the time, it was an idea whose time had not yet come. President Ronald Reagan subsequently removed the solar panels, along with its tax credits.
Back in the 1970s, solar power was seen as an expensive and inefficient option. But the fast-developing technology available today is making green energy—like solar power—not just a mere alternative, but a real, concrete source of energy. This is especially in far-flung rural areas which have yet to be reached by the electricity grid.
Solar energy, for instance, is now seven times less expensive than it was 20 years ago. A 1-kilowatt (kW) photovoltaic system in the United States now costs around $8,000 to $10,000, or $8 to $10/watt. Companies have been developing cheaper options, such as a basic solar lantern, which costs $10.
The Congressional Commission on Science, Technology and Engineering (Comste), of which I am chairman, is pushing for a faster development of solar energy systems. We proposed a Philippine test facility for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, which enables local scientists and engineers to test PV modules in tropical conditions, and identify ideal engineering and practices suited for tropical conditions in the country.
The project will be created in cooperation with the First Philec Solutions and the First Philec Renewable-Energy Technology Center. The latter will be commissioning a 180-kW grid facility in the First Philippine Industrial Park in Batangas. Cagayan Electric Power and Light Co. in Cagayan de Oro will be testing the field-deployed solar panels.
The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science And Technology, Japan’s leading solar laboratory, has already expressed interest in participating in the solar PV testing programs.
We will also be convening our top scientists and engineers through the Engineering Research and Development for Technology consortium to participate in the project.
The solar facility is just the first of Comste’s renewable-energy projects, which will direct the country toward a bright future in clean energy.
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