Renewable energy: It's just too expensive!

The Department of Energy (DoE) under our good friend, Sec. Rene Almendras is moving towards the future as he is set to sign eight renewable energy contracts for wind and solar energy to the tune of P3.5 billion all within a two-year period. This is supposed to augment what the Philippines already have like those modern windmills in Pagudpud Bay in Ilocos Norte. But let me caution our readers that I only agree with this in order for us Filipinos to realize that renewable energy sources like solar energy, which is from the sun, or windmills, which comes from the wind maybe free, but they certainly are not cheap to procure. If they were so cheap, then the private sector would have already invested heavily into this business.

A case in point is the windmills of Pagudpud Bay, which I have already seen three times during our motorcycle rides to Northern Luzon. But in all the three times I went to see those windmills, all of them were not rotating… meaning, there was no wind. Having no wind means no electricity is being generated and the people of Pagudpud had to get a more stable and reliable power source. Hence, wind power is merely an alternative energy source, but certainly it cannot be a main power supplier for the grid as it is just too unreliable because the wind only blows when it wants to blow.

The same is also true with solar energy which is free as it comes from the sun, but in this country where we only have two seasons, wet and wild, when the rain clouds hide the sun, solar energy is useless. The other deficiency for solar energy is that, it just doesn’t work at night time. So again for you dreamers out there, I too share your enthusiasm about the promise of renewal energy, but until and unless the prices of these devices go down, a 3rd world country like us just cannot afford to make it a main power supply.

Enter Sen. Sergio “Serge” Osmeña III who issued a statement that it is not the right time to develop the use of on-grid solar energy as proposed by the National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) because the high capital cost of acquiring them would be passed on to consumers. Sen. Osmeña made this statement as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and co-chair of the Joint Congressional Power Commission.

Sen. Serge warned, “The feed-in-tariff (FIT) system of the Department of Energy for promoting renewable energy should be implemented with caution, especially for solar energy, considering that it imposes additional costs on the consumers particularly in the early years. Solar energy if introduced in hast, will unnecessarily burden the consumer.”

The Feed-in-tariff (FIT) system is an incentive system for the use of renewable energy investments, which involves paying a premium for power generated from renewable energy sources. The NREB has proposed to allocate 100 megawatts (MW) for Solar energy at a whooping P17.95 per kilowatt-hour (KWH) under the FIT system. This is extremely expensive owing to the fact that the cost of solar panels is still so prohibitively high.

But the good news is, countries like the United States are feverishly working out ways to develop solar panels at a very low cost, but that is still some five to ten years away. Incidentally the FIT for mini-hydro like the Hedcor-Sibulan mini-hydro that I saw in Davao City is only pegged at P6.15/KWh. So if you were from Davao, you would rather ask the government or the private sector to invest more money in mini-hydros than in solar or wind energy, which is just too prohibitive.

Remember today we are paying only around P5/KWh. So you should ask yourself… should we pay additional money for renewable energy sources now with the realization that in ten years, the prices of these solar panels would drop dramatically? As of now, those prices have not gone down and we only got pledges that it would. So until and unless we see those prices go down, we should proceed with caution in implementing this program.

But the Aquino government is hell-bent on pursuing a Renewable Energy program, which means he is investing too early in this program despite its being so capital intensive. While I agree that Pres. PNoy is looking far ahead, it will still cost taxpayers too much in an era when we are all suffering a very high cost of living. He should give this program a second or third look lest he loses his popularity all the more.

As a journalist, I am extremely elated that the Supreme Court decided to allow the live coverage of the trial of the Ampatuan Massacre so that the people would know how our courts would handle this famous trial. I also agree with the regulations that the Supreme Court set, like TV anchors or broadcasters cannot do any voice over’s while the trial is on-going and that no advertisements should not distract the televiewers. I how wish that all our courts would allow TV coverage so perhaps it will result in speedy justice.

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