Solar energy eyed in Mindanao

ONCE A RIVER A farmer stands on the bed of a river that dried up as a result of the dry season heat in Nabas town, Aklan province. In many parts of the country, the levels of water in dams, rivers and lakes are declining as a result of the extreme heat of the summer months. The dry spell is most felt in Mindanao, which is suffering from daily outages as a result of the reduced output from two of its main sources of electricity, the Agus and Pulangi hydropower facilities. GUIJO DUENAS/INQUIRER VISAYAS

DAVAO CITY—The solution to Mindanao’s lingering power crisis may lie in one of the reasons for the crisis these days—the sun.

The Davao City Investment and Promotion Center (DCIPC) said it was now looking for investors that will bankroll the establishment of solar energy systems, which, the DCIPC said, could be the answer to the shortage of electricity not only in the city but in the entire Mindanao.

Ivan Chin Cortez, DCIPC chief, said tapping solar energy would also reduce dependence on power plants that run on highly polluting sources of fuel, like coal.

Mindanao is currently suffering from a power deficiency of more than 300 megawatts following the reduced output from two hydropower facilities that supply up to 60 percent of the island’s demand for electricity—the Agus and Pulangi hydropower plants.

The two plants, which are run by the state-owned National Power Corp., rely on a water supply that is dwindling because of the summer heat.

Cortez said the city government was eyeing China-based businessmen to finance massive solar farms that can boost the supply of power in the city. China has brought down the costs of solar technology.

The city’s power provider, Davao Light and Power Co. (DLPC), said it continued to depend on electricity from the transmission firm National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).

DLPC is a subsidiary of the Aboitiz Group, which is also a power producer.

Cortez said officials of his office had started talking with partner agencies to bring to reality the dream of a solar farm, or at least the installation of solar panels in homes in the city.

Power generation, said Cortez, is a priority investment area in the city.

Brownouts, some lasting up to 10 hours in some areas like Zamboanga City, have been causing businesses in Mindanao an estimated P30 million per hour in losses, according to an official of a trade group in Cagayan de Oro City.

In the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), other possible energy sources are also being explored, according to Ishak Mastura, head of the ARMM investment board.

Mastura said among those exploring other energy sources were private companies that want to reduce their dependence on power from coal plants or hydro sources that cannot be relied on during the dry season.

He said Lamsan Trading Inc., for example, which is based in Sultan Kudarat town, Maguindanao province, was building its own 15-MW biomass-fired generator.

The biomass power generator, costing P921 million, was initially designed to power up Lamsan’s corn starch plant but can generate more power than what the firm needs and which can be added to the Mindanao grid.

ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman said such power projects could also increase production because they would not depend on the NGCP and could prove to be cheaper in the long run. Judy Quiros, Eldie Aguirre and Julie Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao