A look at renewable energy sources

Our special presentation today is a political show. With 28 more days until elections, things are now moving very quickly. We can expect visits from the Senatoriables, many of whom we only know by name. Our guest for tonight is Rep. Rozzano “Ruffy” Biazon of the Liberal Party. He told me that his parents named him after Rozzano Brazzi of the hit 50’s musical “South Pacific” which carries the songs that many in my generation grew to love.

This interview with Ruffy is also my way of getting to know this senatorial candidate. Apparently being in the Senate isn’t new to him. His father is Sen. Rodolfo “Pong” Biazon, a three-term senator who is now running for his son’s congressional seat. Ruffy is a three-term congressman in Muntinglupa and apparently authored major bills that are now laws of the land like RA 9262 The Anti-Violence Against Women and their Children Act, RA.9208 the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, RA 9502 the Cheaper Medicines Act, RA 9504 the law that gives Tax Relief for Minimum Wage Earners. So watch this political show on SkyCable’s channel 15 at 8:00pm tonight.

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Last Friday morning, we began our Renewable Energy Tour with the Cebu media sponsored by the Cebu Energy Development Corp. (CEDC) right here in our own backyard. We boarded a yacht and sailed at the back of Olango Island to the island just beside it to visit the Pangan-an Solar Powered Plant, which gives power to the 300 families living in this island. This Solar Power project is a joint project with the Kingdom of Belgium and the Philippine government through the Department of Energy (DOE). The switch-on ceremony was done on Dec.7, 1998. It is operated by the Pangan-an Island Cooperative for Community Development (PICCD).

We didn’t know that a Solar Farm is just an hour’s boat travel from Mactan and has been in existence for 12 years. With this project, at least the Department of Energy now has a 12-year experience on the use of solar energy. There has been so much media exposure about the windmills of Bangui, Ilocos Norte (where some of our Cebu media friends went last Saturday, but I didn’t join as I’ve seen those windmills during our motorcycle ride) but almost none here in Pangan-an and to think, it is right in the midst of Cebu’s island hopping tourism areas. Maybe they should include the Pangan-an Solar Farm as part of our eco-tourism tour.

While 12 years have passed since its switch-on ceremony, the Pangan-an Solar Farm has 504 solar panels that produce 12.5KVA enough to light up the homes of the 300 families living there. But it is not strong enough to allow residents to use refrigerators. Unfortunately, there are solar panels already broken and they are now on the last batch of replacement panels. If the DOE allows this project to deteriorate further, it will no longer produce electricity. I don’t think that we should allow this to happen.

But since this is a kind of experiment on the use of solar energy, I would like to believe that the technology 12 years ago is already outdated. I’m sure that there are newly-invented solar panels that is much more efficient than the ones used in Pangan-an. Also, maybe it is time for the Kingdom of Belgium to look into what happened to this project and revisit it perhaps to upgrade this facility.

While we know that the sun provides free energy, the figures on the capital cost and its operational cost is not encouraging. If, for instance the government installed a diesel power pack in Pangan-an, its capital outlay would be cheaper, but with a higher operational cost. But it would give the island a more efficient and stable power where the residents can use refrigerators and other electrical appliances. So on we go to the Ambuklao Dam so we could tell you the benefits of having surface water as our power source, though it does suffer from long and hot dry spells.

I was talking with retired businessman Luis Aboitiz and he told me that Mindanao holds the biggest potential if we could only tap the surface water that’s around the Agusan areas. But then, there are just too many people who pose as stumbling block to this development coming from the lumads or indigenous people, government bureaucracy, the NPA problem or the Muslim insurgency. Indeed, Mindanao can have more power, if only!

This is why peace is a most basic need in Mindanao, if only we can bring all the stakeholders carrying arms to sit down and talk peace. The biggest problem the next President faces is to disarm these various armed groups roaming freely in Mindanao. If and when this objective can be achieved, then peace will come to the trouble land in Mindanao.