Solar energy to light Laguna Lake highway

The four-lane highway around the Laguna Lake area will soon be powered by solar energy thereby showcasing how renewable energy from the sun can greatly reduce energy cost to the local governments of the province while enabling them to reduce hydrocarbon emission with this clean energy.

The 270-kilometer highway called Laguna Bay Area Rapid Transit (LABART) was launched two weeks ago by President Arroyo to help ease the traffic congestion in the province and interconnect the cities and towns of the province to one another. This way, the province can be more attractive to industrial locators and tourists as well. The project will be somewhat like Lake Tahoe in the US or the Sea of Galilee.

LABART, an undertaking of the Department of Public Works and Highways and the Laguna Lake Development Authority, has tapped Solar Electric Co. Inc. (Solarco) to install the streetlights using solar panels and batteries.

There will be electric buses, electric trains (like the LRT and MRT lines in Metro Manila), electric boats and solar powered streetlights and street signs.

Solarco president Robert Lopez Puckett said he is excited about the potential of the project in spreading the good news about renewable energy like solar and wind energy so that other provinces will follow.

"Imagine if all the provinces in Luzon alone will go all out and use solar panels in lighting their streets, then this would mean a drastic cut in hydrocarbon releases to the environment thereby stalling global warming substantially and more importantly, the savings from the local governments’ electric bills (which are normally charged a flat rate by the electric coops or in the case of Metro Manila, the Manila Electric Co.)," Puckett said.

Not only will Solarco provide the solar panels for the streetlights but also the street signs and other signages along the highways will be powered by solar energy, Puckett said. But another contractor will supply the electric buses.

LABART was packaged by Ofie Bulaong, a professional project proponent who presented it to different groups in the US, China and Europe, which will now fund  $2.8 billion for its entirety. Puckett said the memorandum of agreement covering the use of solar panels for the highway was recently signed among the local governments and Solar Electric Co.

The highway will also utilize electric buses–similar to the electric jeepneys which Solarco will operate in 2007 in Bacolod City–that will be run on solar panels and batteries to store the sun’s energy.

The entire project is expected to be completed by 2010, he said.