UNLIKE other off-grid towns in the country, Palimbang in Sultan Kudarat province rejoices on stormy days and gloomy nights.

Credit that to solar energy and renewable energy solutions that help protect the environment and reduce the country’s dependence on traditional energy sources. Homeowners are also convinced that the steady stock of sun power is more reliable compared to what people get from the grid.

Solar energy, considered the most available alternative source, is being harnessed by the government to lessen the country’s dependence on imported fossil fuels whose prices have been continuously going up.

Once a lightless town, Palimbang looked permanently stuck in the olden era where time seemed to have stood still. But this is rural Palimbang, a land where people do everything manually because that’s the way it has been for years.

Paved roads and global brands are similarly unfamiliar sights. Most people are subsistence farmers, making less than P50 a day.

Palimbang, with 44,000 people – about half live without access to electricity – is not likely to be connected to the grid any time in the foreseeable future as commercial electric providers find it inefficient and uneconomical to link the town to the national grid.

The hard life

The national grid stops in Maitum town off Sarangani province, so most of the locales experience hard life without a single light bulb.

Two years ago, solar energy came to town and changed everything. Thanks to the Earth’s most powerful source of energy, 18 of the 40 villages in Palimbang have taken a giant leap into the 21st century – including Butril and Lumitan, where 60 homes are fitted with solar-powered batteries that produce up to 80 watts of electricity, enough to power two light bulbs, a radio, and black and white television set.

A total of 620 households from 18 villages spread across Palimbang use solar-powered batteries.

The usual command for a high price of the kerosene, which the villagers had used for years, has found a match in the sun. With the advent of solar-powered battery system, the advantage is immediately noticeable: Gone are those lonely nights.

Villagers play music 24/7, while others make full use of solar lighting. A few families now run small retail stores that close late, some accepting a small fee for charging cellular phones.

Nonstop work

In the dead of the night, the solar-powered batteries bring light, and work continues among fathers.

“We found the sun as our ally in improving lives,” says former Moro rebel Mustapha Budin. “The solar energy systems do have a real impact on our lives.”

Under a glowing bulb, Budin extends his work at night, processing coconut to copra.

“Electricity definitely makes a big difference in terms of giving better education for the children. We thank that we are not dependent on kerosene lamp now. The solar energy is good because it’s renewable,” he says

“We are now more inclined to work together for our continued development rather than involve ourselves in clan wars or joining rouge groups,” Budin says.

He adds: “My village now has a greater sense of security seen among content villagers socializing at night. We are a very lucky village.”

When it comes to linking the digital divide, Budin is firm that solar energy has a definite role to play in rural Palimbang. “From the bleak ages to a lighted community, it seems our prayers have been answered.”

Rural electrification

The Department of Energy and the US government-funded Alliance for Mindanao Off-Grid Renewable Energy Program (Amore) funded the electrification of households in Palimbang.

Since 2002, Amore has electrified 12,000 households in 400 remote, off-grid villages in conflict-affected provinces of Maguindanao, Davao, Shariff Kabunsuan, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur, Sulu, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi and the Zamboanga Peninsula, using renewable energy systems, such as solar power and microhydro.

The DoE is leading the campaign to use the sun as a source of energy by developing innovative policies that lead to greater access to electricity services. Stand-alone energy system will be used to serve over 454 lightless villages that are mostly dispersed in Mindanao.

Despite the gains of rural electrification in Mindanao, electrification levels are the lowest in the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, where 271 of its villages remain dark as of March.

“The sun is only one of many alternative energy sources that should be encouraged. It has given us a future,” Budin said.

Sustainability

Now on its second year of using solar power, Palimbang villagers are serious in prolonging the benefits through sustainability mechanisms. The local co-op called the Barangay Renewable Energy and Community Development Association or Brecda oversees the operation of the system, and collects the operations and monthly tariff for its expansion with the hope of lighting more homes.

“Some 95 percent of the town’s electricity comes from renewable sources,” Mayor Samrud Mamansual says.

With this, Palimbang’s green credentials have made the town as the largest solar power user in the region.

Mamansual also plans to expand its solar battery charging stations to cover more households that could not be reached by the local electric company. “Photovoltaic battery charging project suits the needs of far-flung villages in the municipality,” he says.