THE Senate appeared to have given solar energy the cold shoulder because of the high cost for customers.
Sen. Serge Osmeña, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and co-chairman of the Joint Congressional Power Commission, expressed concern over the proposal of the National Renewable Energy Board to allocate 100 megawatts to solar energy at a feed-in tarff of P17.95 per kilowatt-hour.
Feed-in tarff or FIT is a renewable energy policy of the government that offers guaranteed payments per kilowatt-hour to developers for the electricity they produce.
FIT is passed on to consumers in the form of universal charges.
Osmeña said solar energy would have the highest feed-in tariff compared to mini-hydro, at P6.15/kWh, biomass at P7/kWh, and wind power at P10.37/kWh.
Ocean energy will also have a tariff of P17.95/kWh, but with an allocation of only 10 megawatts since it is an experimental technology.
Osmeña warned that the NREB proposal would result in additional charges to the consumers over the next 20 years. In the first three years alone, the additional costs to subsidize solar energy would be around P1.7 billion a year.
In the remaining 17 years, additional charges can be as high as P1.4 billion a year, he said.
Energy experts indicated that the cost of solar panels could drop by 50 percent within five years. “That would be the proper time to consider using solar energy, a P9/kWh rate for 20 years would certainly be more tolerable,” Osmeña.
In addition, if a larger allocation were given to biomass plants, Filipino farmers would earn additional income from selling their rice husk, bagasse, wood chips, and other products as fuel.
Osmeña also said the Renewable Energy Act does not mandate the allocation of the 100 MW to solar energy.
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