No Increase In Solar Installations

Manila Bulletin
By MYRNA M. VELASCO
December 6, 2011, 12:41am


MANILA, Philippines — Despite the intense lobby, the Department of Energy will not back down to the bid of project developers for higher installation target on solar technology, primarily due to technical absorption constraint in the power grid.


Energy Secretary Rene D. Almendras made this clear when asked by the media if there is any chance to jack up the proposed installations for solar to be underpinned by feed-in-tariff (FIT) charges given the plummeting cost of the technology globally.


The current installation target for solar as certified by the department will be at 50 megawatts. This has so far been integrated in the computation of the FIT Allowance (FIT-All) charges that will eventually be passed on in the consumers’ electric bills.


“The installation target is irrelevant to pricing. The installation target is really a function of technical considerations on grid absorption,” the energy chief said.


With the widely-perceived collapse of the global solar industry, Almendras emphasized that the country has to be more cautious when it comes to capacity accommodation for this technology. If some parties or companies would want to go beyond the approved installation, he indicated that they are free to do so, but at their own risks and not necessarily lock-up the consumers to long-term subsidies.


Besides inherent technology limitations, Almendras noted there are two identifiable “downsides” if the government would compromise this time for a higher absorption of solar in the grid.


The collapse of the solar market, he enthused, can be appreciated two-fold: “one is over-supply; and the other one is technical enhancement. If you go cheap because of oversupply, in the long run you will suffer because you will not reap the benefits of more-technologically advanced solar panels to generate more electricity from the same sunlight pattern.”


Quoting reports from a foreign publication, the energy chief echoed that “the global solar market is collapsing… they are so worried because the volume of solar has dropped so significantly that by sheer oversupply, the price is going to be dropped because there are so much manufactured solar panels but there are no buyers now.”


Additionally, he stressed that the dilemma of higher installation targets is being compounded by developments that emerging technologies might make capacity generation more efficient, hence, rendering existing technologies obsolete or thrown in the ‘less efficient genre.”