Solar energy provides power to 7,000 Mindanao households
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Published on page B10 of the May 22, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
ENERGY from sunlight, or solar photovoltaic energy, now provides electricity to some 7,000 households in Mindanao, says Alliance for Mindanao Off-grid Renewable Energy Program (Amore).
A program of the US Agency for International Development, the Department of Energy, Mirant Philippines Foundation, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and global non-profit organization Winrock International, Amore has been providing electricity to poor households in villages mostly in ARMM that cannot be connected to the power grid.
Since 2002, it has been providing mainly stand-alone solar home systems, which allow households to store in batteries the energy obtained from sunlight.
To maximize the use and ensure the sustainability of these solar home systems, Amore organizes participating households in each village into associations and trains them to operate and maintain the systems.
These associations put up their own funds not only to sustain the systems but also to expand them to more households. Maintaining the systems is easy, says Amore. Users only have to wipe the solar panels regularly with a clean, dry cloth and make sure their batteries do not run low on battery solution.
Amore engineers install the solar panels in places where they will get enough sunlight, and connect all the wiring. The program also trains technicians in each of the participating villages to handle repairs.
The solar panels last for decades, and only the batteries have to be replaced every two years or once used up. Amore has tied up with the Bantay Baterya (Battery Watch) project of the ABS-CBN Foundation's Bantay Kalikasan (Nature Watch) program to ensure the proper recycling of used-up lead-acid batteries.
Amore says a 55-watt-peak solar home system can power four 10-watt compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) for five hours everyday, or three 10W CFLs and a small radio cassette player.
Amore also uses solar photovoltaic energy to power potable water systems, provide electricity to schools for TV-, audio- and computer-based educational enhancements, and power telecommunications facilities in selected remote villages.
While the cost of solar home systems is still prohibitive--a 55-watt peak unit costs roughly P40,000--the cost of maintaining them is very low. They are also considered a more environment-friendly alternative because, unlike fossil fuels, they do not pollute the atmosphere and do not emit carbon dioxide that causes global warming.
The Department of Energy is pushing for the increased use of solar photovoltaic energy and other forms of renewable energy in the country in place of energy from fossil fuels which are mostly imported.
Being just above the equator, Amore says, the Philippines has very high solar radiation, making it an ideal site for the use of solar photovoltaic energy.
Amore also uses microhydro power in a number of sites where there are viable water sources. Microhydro power usually generates more energy than solar photovoltaic energy.
Amore is set to provide electricity to 6,000 more households in Mindanao with solar photovoltaic and microhydro power until 2009.
posted by philpower @ 7:19 AM,
