Sun-powered electricity lights up remote village

For two hours every night, a 10-watt light bulb makes it possible for 12-year old Ian Grace to do her homework and keep her place among the top 10 students of her class.

Ian’s household is one among many in Bunog village that benefits from a solar-powered battery system financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) with resources provided by the Danish Cooperation Fund for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in Rural Areas.

The Philippines’ Department of Energy is implementing the project, which rehabilitates old renewable energy systems in remote areas. In Bunog, a non-operating solar battery system installed years earlier has been rehabilitated. The village is 30 kilometers away from the nearest electric pole, and since it has a low power demand, connecting it to the grid is not economically viable.

“The solar energy helps us a lot,” said Ian Grace’s mother Stella. “Our children are able to study their lessons and we are able to do our household chores, even at night.”

“Without the electricity, the children were only using candles for light in the evening,” said Evelyn Kamias, officer-in-charge of the nearby elementary school. “The children often don’t do their homework because they find it too difficult to study under a dim-lit candle or kerosene wick lamp.”

The solar-powered white light is brighter than the yellowish light from kerosene lamps it replaced. A kerosene lamp consumes an average one liter of kerosene a week, takes a large amount from the income of an average farming family in the village.

“We reap huge benefits from solar power. It adds to our profit margins because we are able to sell even at night,” said store owner Rosalia Dulig. With the solar-powered light, she is able to serve customers up to 8 p.m.

“Before, when we were using a kerosene lamp, it blackened our walls and our children inhaled the smoke, which affects their health,” said Apolonia Cortaje, a 35-year-old manager of a solar battery charging station.

There are six solar battery charging stations in the village, each catering to 10 to 15 households. There are some 70 households, each with their own solar battery. Those who manage the solar battery charging stations are usually full-time housewives, who charge one battery a day or an average six batteries in a week, earning for them extra income.

It takes a full day and a small fee to charge a solar battery, which then lasts for 10 to 15 nights. Each beneficiary remits a small fee as monthly dues for two years for battery replacement, which has a two to three-year lifetime. The renewable energy system itself can last 20 years.

The Bunog solar project is one of two non-functioning renewable energy systems made operational again by the ADB-funded project. The other project is the rehabilitation of a twin micro hydropower system in the northern province of Kalinga.

The Philippines has been developing new and renewable energy systems for rural electrification with solar, mini-hydro and wind power. While most of the projects provide reliable and cost-effective electricity services to the communities they serve, about 20 to 25 percent fail due to sub-standard equipment and inadequate after-sales services.

The government requested ADB assistance to rehabilitate the failed projects. ADB responded by providing a $450,000 grant for a project implemented by India’s Energy and Resource Institute and IDP Consultants Inc. of the Philippines.