Business Mirror
Published on Tuesday, 07 May 2013 19:28 Written by Bong D. Fabe / Correspondent
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—In an effort to entice electric cooperatives as well as small and medium business enterprises (SMEs) in the southern Philippines to help address the so-called Mindanao power crisis, a solar-energy company is offering them P7.47 per kilowatt hour (kWh), as well as a 100-percent financing scheme.
Lim Solar Philippines (LSP), a subsidiary of the California and Nevada, US-registered renewable-energy company Mendoza Solar Llc., is also offering Mindanao electric cooperatives the lease of its 5-megawatt (MW) hybrid power plant (2-MW solar pv and 3-MW gas turbines) at a fixed price of P7.47 per kWh for 15 years, after which the cooperatives have the option to purchase it.
“For Mindanao, I will offer P7.47 per kWh to the electric cooperatives and large megawatt level users and P8.50 to small users. I will also straight finance residential and small businesses,” LSP Chairman Winston L. Mendoza told private investors and electric cooperative officials during a “Lunch and Learn” presentation at a posh hotel here recently.
LSP is the biggest promoter in the country of the use of state-of-the-art portable fuel-cell electric systems that address base energy needs, especially of isolated areas.
Mendoza, who also chairs the Mendoza Solar Llc. as well as another affiliate, the Lorenzana Energy International, said the hybrid power plant will be operational within six months from the signing of the contract with electric cooperatives.
“The price compares favorably with your coal contracts, which I expect will cost you P8 per kWh or more when it is operationalized in 2016. In contrast, Lim Solar can have the hybrid power plant operational within six months from signing of the lease contract.”
To further drive home the point that he is serious in his offer, he challenged electric cooperatives to penalize him P10,000 for every week that LSP is delayed in building the hybrid power plant.
“But once we finish the construction ahead of schedule, you have to pay us P10,000 for every week we deducted from the delivery target,” he said.
Mendoza—whose companies have ongoing power development and integration projects with De La Salle University, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and Camp Aguinaldo, as well as in Malaysia, Hawaii, Guam, California and Nevada—said solar energy is very appropriate for Mindanao, especially since the island is in dire need of electricity to meet development demands.
“Solar energy as well as other renewable-energy sources is very appropriate for Mindanao if we look at the long term and the impact of climate change, which exacerbates natural phenomena such as typhoons and storms. For the last several years, Mindanao [has become] the favorite of natural disasters, whose impacts were exacerbated by climate change-inducing fossil fuels. We can no longer afford to let Mindanao suffer. Solar energy is abundant in the island and it provides clean energy,” he said.
Mendoza said his companies’ vision is to wean the Philippines from its dependence on fossil fuels as well as “reduce our power cost per kilowatt hour by 30 percent by 2020.”
“Our vision for the Philippines is to transition 30 percent of our electric generation to renewable energy. Currently, most of our electrical power is generated by coal-burning, diesel generators, natural gas, geothermal and hydroelectric power plants,” he said. source
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