By Alena Mae S. Flores | Posted on June 30, 2012 | 11:05pm
Sunlight, probably the most natural and readily available form of energy, can easily cover the rising electricity demand in the Philippines and energize the homes of around four million Filipinos in remote areas who still spend the night in the dark.
The Energy Department, however, is not ready to endorse full development of solar energy projects just yet, claiming solar technology remained expensive and would only drive prices of electricity higher.
Solar energy developers disputed this, saying the cost of solar energy projects was rapidly going down. In fact, solar projects mounted on rooftops, which harness energy from the sun and convert it to electricity, are already providing electricity to several far-flung communities outside the power grid at a cost of as low as P15,000 per installation. Solar homes systems are guaranteed to last up to 25 years.
The power grid refers to the main power transmission network that conveys electricity from power plants to homes and establishments. Families in remote areas outside the grid can now enjoy the benefits of two light bulbs, a mobile phone charger and a radio, thanks to solar rooftop systems.
Solar rooftop projects have long been implemented in the country but it was only recently applied on a large scale such as the one installed by a multilateral bank.
The Asian Development Bank inaugurated its own solar rooftop project at its headquarters in Ortigas, Mandaluyong City on June 5. The 2,040-photovoltaic panels occupying 6,640 square meters on the roof of ADB’s main building is the biggest solar mounted rooftop to date.
Largest solar project
Once completed, the ADB rooftop project will generate 613-megawatt hours of electricity per year to run a portion of the bank’s air conditioning, lighting, and computer systems, in effect reducing the bank’s carbon footprint.
“Using rooftops and other open spaces is an efficient way for businesses and homes to capture and use the energy of the sun,” said S. Chander, director-general of ADB’s Regional and Sustainable Development Department.
“We hope other companies will follow ADB’s example,” Chander said. “I expect that once prices go down, and the manufacturers are able to offer lower prices, people should want to buy that.”
He said ADB was endorsing solar rooftop projects instead of ground-mounted solar projects because land should be utilized for agriculture.
Propmech Corp., the winning bidder of the ADB solar rooftop project, has installed several solar rooftop projects in coordination with the Energy Department under the Rural Electrification Program of the government, supported by international aid agencies such as the World Bank, the United Nations and the United States Agency for International Development.
500 villages
The company won contracts to provide sustainable electricity in remote areas and had installed solar photovoltaic systems in over 500 barangays that previously had no access to electricity. Propmech expects to complete more than 10,000 solar installations by the end of the year.
Propmech director Glenn Tong said the most spartan rural solar home system costs only about P15,000 to P20,000, although urban roof installations are on a different scale.
Tong said solar home systems are customizable and can be installed very fast. “If the materials are available, [installation will be] very fast. It would be a few days for most residential. However, what takes longer usually is the pre-installation part, particularly on explaining with the customer how solar works and what can and can’t be done,” he said.
Tong said Spartan solar home and communal systems are the right technology for remote areas off the power grid, although there are various challenges along the way.
“Solar rooftop systems make the most sense for these areas, but logistics can be difficult since infrastructure of these areas—light, power, water, roads—are not available. Peace and order is a challenge as well,” he said.
“However, solar power makes sense for rural because it is affordable compared to laying out kilometers of high-grade copper cable to sparsely populated areas. Also solar has no moving parts and are warranted for up to 25 years,” Tong said.
A bill proposed by Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño in fact seeks to install one million solar rooftop projects in 10 years. The move, if approved, will make the Philippines a global leader in solar energy development.
Aside from small solar rooftop projects, the Energy Department had approved 17 solar power projects with combined power generation capacity of 271.22 MW that were supposed to be connected to the grid. Another 24 projects with combined capacity of 117.83 MW seek approval from the department.
Among the biggest projects are the proposed 50-MW Pasuquin-Burgos solar power project in Ilocos Norte of Energy Logics Philippines and the 50-MW Clark Freeport solar project in Mabalacat, Pampanga of Belgian firm Enfinity Philippines Renewable Resources Inc. Enfinity also proposed to build a 30-MW solar project in Cavite.
Govt restriction
Development of these projects, however, threatened the Energy Department’s decision to put a 50-MW cap on solar energy generation for three years, which was 50 percent lower than the 100 MW recommended by National Renewable Energy Board.
This means that only 50 MW of solar power projects can be connected to the main power grid each year.
Solar power developers questioned the department’s decision, noting that this volume was only 18 percent of the 269 MW originally presented by Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras to President Benigno Aquino III during the launch of the National Renewable Energy Program in June 2011.
Almendras had cautioned against putting up higher installation targets on renewable energy projects such as solar projects, which he said, were still expensive and considered intermittent.
The energy official said in a letter to a renewable energy developer the government had decided to limit the installation targets of renewable energy including solar because “the present grid is not designed to handle too much intermittent power coming from RE.”
“This is why we were compelled to limit installation targets of some RE resources until such time that the transmission system is fully upgraded,” he said.
Concerns over solar
Almendras said lessons learned from other countries also underscored the need to be “cautious” for some RE technologies.
He mentioned the failure of US solar firm Solyndra which cost the US government some $600 million while China had an oversupply of solar panels waiting for buyers.
“In Australia, their government has cut back on solar FIT. In the United Kingdom, £1 Million was paid to RE wind developers not to supply the grid to prevent problems in the transmission system and wait until the system is upgraded. Multilateral agencies have also cautioned massive rollouts of RE technologies due to the experience of Spain and Germany,” he said.
Last year, solar energy developers applied for a feed-in tariff rate of P17.95 per kilowatt-hour. The feed-in tariff, if approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission, will be fixed for 20 years and will subsidize the cost of energy producers.
Feed-in tariff
The solar energy developers, however, later revised their FIT application to reflect the lower cost of solar panels and submitted a lower rate of P14.59 per kWh, which proved solar energy cost was going down.
They said the cost of solar electricity was nearing “grid parity” because the total cost of Manila Electric Co.’s electricity (generation, transmission and distribution) was now at P12 per kWh.
Tetchie Capellan, founding president of the Philippine Solar Power Alliance, predicted grid parity would be achieved by 2014. Capellan also said the impact to consumers of the solar utilization was only P0.01 per kWh under the FIT-Allowance, or the “universal charge” wherein all consumers were expected to pay for the cost of using renewable energy.
She said the cost of building a one-MW solar plant had gone down to $2.2 million per MW from as high as $3 million, previously.
The PSPA urged the government to immediately pass the FIT rates for solar projects, as this would encourage electricity consumers to erect solar rooftop systems at their homes, offices and factories as a way to cope with rising electricity cost.
She said solar energy could be easily and quickly installed on rooftops, allowing every home and business establishment to instantly cut their electricity expenses by as much as 30 percent.
Sound investment
Capellan said consumers could fully recover their solar rooftop investment in five to six years and would continue to enjoy free electricity for the next 20 years.
Solar rooftops, she said, could be a sound investment particularly in Metro Manila where rooftop space is vast and power rates are high.
“Critics of solar say the technology is expensive. Waiting is no longer an option as consumers are now suffering from the high price of electricity. It is time for the government to pass the feed-in tariff… to bring immediate relief to electricity consumers,” Capellan said. source
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