Solar rooftops a bright spot for Philippines

By Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star) | Updated March 17, 2016 - 12:00am
http://www.philstar.com/business/2016/03/17/1563626/solar-rooftops-bright-spot-philippines

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines has bright prospects in the solar rooftop sector given the rapid investments in the industry amid the robust growth of the economy.

However, the government must consider removing the cap and streamlining the process in net metering to further expand the sector, officials of Filipino-Japanese tandem Transnational Uyeno Solar Corp. said.

In a briefing, Transnational Uyeno director Nicolas Bivero said the country has huge potential in putting up solar rooftops to power up the manufacturing sector.

“There’s a lot of roof space which already exists and is being constructed. The good thing about the

Philippines is in the last years, it has been growing strongly, therefore it has had a lot of investments and is

projected to have a lot of investments,” he said.

Bivero noted a number of companies have shifted their source of power towards solar, helping them generate savings as solar displaces the use of energy sold in the market and to the grid.

“We do believe this market is quite substantial in the Philippines. If you go outside Metro Manila towards Laguna and Bulacan, you have very huge factories, warehouses, cold storage facilities. In that sense, that market segment we believe is quite a good segment because it will continue to grow,” he said.

But for solar rooftop investments to flourish, the Philippine government will play a big role by providing support to investors, Transnational Uyeno general manager Jen Tablante said.

She said this could be in the way of removing the net metering cap of 100 kilowatt and by streamlining its process.

“We talked about net metering. Currently there’s cap of 100 kW so it discourages companies in investing more in solar and generating more savings in the long run.

If government considers removing the cap altogether, that would be good,” Tablante said.

“Also, government should help in streamlining and harmonizing the net metering process. Currently, distribution utilities have different procedures, fees. So that’s another area where government can intervene and help in promoting solar investments in the country,” she said.

In July 2013, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) adopted the rules paving the way for the implementation of the net-metering program for renewable energy in the country.