Solar Power still being promoted, despite lack of FIT support

Posted on 2012-06-21 by alex

While the Philippines is still waiting for news on the proposed feed-in tariffs (FITs, which as to date, seems to be stalled), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has made its intentions known on lending support to promising solar power efforts in the country. This particular move, which is in-line with the banks advocacy in creating a renewable energy function in Asia, is a welcome and much-needed help for alternative power project managers in the Philippines. ADB has proposed a $100 million credit facility that may be used to fund solar power projects and developments. Even without the FITs in place, the bank hopes that credit from this facility may help push things forward for stagnant projects. To note as well, ADB had recently installed several solar panels in its main offices rooftop. This is to serve as an example on how viable renewable energy is, especially for the resources made available in the Philippines. ADB also hopes that similar solar panel rooftop installations will be made in other corporations and homes, just so to help augment the steep energy consumption and fees that the Philippines is currently facing.

Renewable Energy Trust Fund to be Developed

Posted on 2012-06-13 by alex

To help promote the research and development of various renewable energy projects that may be implemented in the country, the Philippines Department of Energy (DOE) has recently made the necessary steps on setting up a trust fund. Termed as the Renewable Energy Trust Fund (RETF), the DOE hopes that this mechanism would help move things forward in creating a sustainable, cleaner and viable future for the country. The RETF is proposed to source out funds from emission fees in line with the Philippine Air Act. Also, another potential source of funds would be the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation. 1.5 percent of net income from the said government establishments can be collected by the DOE. Fines and penalties connected to the Renewable Energy Act would also be pooled into the RETF. Aside from having an RETF, the Philippine Government plans to boost renewable energy resources investments by at least 15,000 megawatts. This is equivalent to a three times increase from the current power generated by the country. The government hopes to have this increase done in a 20-year time span, with the RETF part of the plan to allocate funds for more green power projects.

There are a number of alternative sources of energy and environmentally friendly fuels available to combat the damage to the environment caused by Fossil Fuels. Fossil Fuels such as coal and gasoline provide most of the energy needs of the world today, but because of their diminishing reserves, high prices and most importantly, their damaging effect on the environment, alternative sources of energy and environmentally friendly fuels are now being

developed. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, There are more than a dozen alternative and advanced fuels in production or use today. From the perspective of protecting the environment, alternative fuels and alternative sources of energy usually fall under seven broad headings.

Biofuels Natural Gas Wind Energy Hydroelectric Power Solar Energy Hydrogen Nuclear Energy

Biofuels
Any kind of fuels made from plants or animals. These include wood, wood chippings, methane from animal excrement or as a result of bacterial action and ethanol from plant materials. Lately it is ethanol that has become synonymous with the term biofuel and is in wide use in combination with gasoline in the transportation industry.

Natural Gas
Although a fossil fuel, Natural Gas is cleaner burning than gasoline, but does produce Carbon Dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. Like gasoline natural gas is a finite source, but unlike it, there is still a very plentiful supply still available. The EIA, in conjunction with the Oil and Gas Journal and World Oil publications, estimates world proved natural gas reserves to be around 5,210.8 Tcf (Trillion cubic feet).
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Wind Energy
One of the oldest and cleanest forms of energy and the most developed of the renewable energy sources. There is the potential for a large amount of energy to be produced from wind. The Global Wind Energy Council is forecasting that "the global wind market will grow by over 155% to reach 240 GW of total installed capacity by 2012." Unfortunately wind farms, whether onshore or off shores are unsightly, noisy and generate a lot of opposition.

Hydroelectric Power

Like wind energy, a very old and well developed energy source, but unlike wind energy its capacity for expansion is limited. Over development and unrestricted harnessing of water power can have devastating effect on the local environment and habitation areas.

Solar Energy
Apart from Nuclear Energy, all other forms of energy result from solar energy. Fossil fuels, biofuels and natural gas are in effect bottled solar energy. The wind and rivers which provide renewable energy are the result of solar energy reacting with the earths atmosphere. It is also possible to harness this inexhaustible supply of energy directly through photoelectric cells or using Thermal Power plants.

More on this topic

A Brief Overview of Renewable Energy Sources Nuclear Power and Hydroelectric Energy in a Global Perspective Electrical Energy Resources, Pros and Cons

Hydrogen
Hydrogen could be a very environmentally friendly fuel, and with the advent of the fuel cell it has been proved a viable fuel source for vehicles. But there are serious questions on its production, storage and distribution. There are also questions on its energy efficiency, as so far, it takes more energy to manufacture than it produces.

Nuclear Energy
Once thought to be the Jewel in the Crown of alternatives to fossil fuels, Nuclear Energy received a very bad press after the Three Mile Island incident and the Chernobyl accident. Nonetheless it had enjoyed a comeback of sorts in the earlier years of the new millennium, but now after the nuclear disaster at the Fukushema power plant, caused by the Japanese earthquake and tsunami of 2011, there is a question mark over nuclear power as an alternative source of energy. Although nuclear fission is now a mature and very well understood source of energy it generates a lot of opposition because of safety concerns. It is very costly and produces difficult to handle toxic waste. Nuclear fusion, which would have no such safety or waste problems, remains the Holy Grail of alternative energy, but so far science has failed to come up with a working solution. No one alternative source will solve the problems posed by global warming. Wind energy does have potential, biofuels and hydrogen are possibilities, but all these have associated problems as well. Coupled with more investment and better technology, the solution should come from a combination of all these sources.

Read more at Suite101: Alternative Sources of Energy: Types of Environmentally Friendly Fuels | Suite101.com http://suite101.com/article/alternative-sources-of-energya49284#ixzz1zKMsz0EL

Hydroelectricity

Hydroelectricity has been around for close to 100 years. Hydropower energy has been utilized for over thousands of years. In the United States, hydropower energy is the primary source for electricity. How does it work? Hydropower uses flowing water to create energy that can be captured and turned into electricity. Hydropower provides the largest source of renewable energy in the United States. The most common type of hydropower plant uses a dam on a river to store water in a reservoir; this is called Impoundment hydropower. Water released from the reservoir flows through a turbine, spinning it, which activates a generator to produce electricity. The most famous hydrolelectric Dam would be Hoover Dam pictured below.

Hydropower Fundamentals

The major components of a hydroelectric dam are as follows: 1. Dam A barrier built across a watercourse to hold back the flow of water and create a reservoir. The reservoir that is formed is, in effect, stored energy. 2. Penstock A pipeline used to convey water, under pressure, from the reservoir to the turbines of a hydropower plant. 3. Turbine A machine that is turned by the force of the fast moving water pushing against its blades. Turbines convert the kinetic energy of the water to mechanical energy.

4. Generator Connects to the turbine and rotates to produce the electrical energy. 5. Transformer Converts electricity from the generator to usable voltage levels. 6. Transmission Lines Conduct electricity from the hydropower plant to the electric distribution system. Transmission line voltages are normally 115 kilovolt or larger.

Hydropower For Home Use

Not everyone can have a Hoover Dam for their own personal use. however with new technology, there are systems available that will allow you to generate hydroelectricity from your own small, personal turbine. One example is seen below.

Hydro-Induction Power is the name of this alternative energy source. It has been producing quality hydro systems for over 20 years. HI-Power systems are ideal for remote sites where water is available a long distance from power needs. High transmission voltage of 100+ volts AC can be sent over a mile, if necessary. It is then stepped down to battery voltage. These units can produce from 30W to 3600W continuous power.

Alternative Energy
Everyday, the world produces carbon dioxide that is released to the earths atmosphere and which will still be there in one hundred years time. This increased content of Carbon Dioxide increases the warmth of our planet and is the main cause of the so called Global Warming Effect. One answer to global warming is to replace and retrofit current technologies with alternatives that have comparable or better performance, but do not emit carbon dioxide. We call this Alternate energy. By 2050, one-third of the world's energy will need to come from solar, wind, and other renewable resources. Who says? British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell, two of the world's largest oil companies. Climate change, population growth, and fossil fuel depletion mean that renewables will need to play a bigger role in the future than they do today. Alternative energy refers to energy sources that have no undesired consequences such for example fossil fuels or nuclear energy. Alternative energy sources are renewable and are thought to be "free" energy sources. They all have lower carbon emissions, compared to conventional energy sources. These include Biomass Energy, Wind Energy, Solar Energy, Geothermal Energy, Hydroelectric Energy sources. Combined with the use of recycling, the use of clean alternative energies such as the home use of solar power systems will help ensure man's survival into the 21st century and beyond. Home security and home independency are the catch cries of the new era in sustainable development and self sufficiency.

Solar Power
From an environmental perspective, solar power is the best thing going. A 1.5 kilowatt PV system will keep more than 110,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas, out of the atmosphere over the next 25 years. The same solar system will also prevent the need to burn 60,000 pounds of coal. With solar, there's no acid rain, no urban smog, no pollution of any kind. Mankind has been crazy to have not bothered to harness the sun's energy until now. Think about this. Go outside on a sunny day. The light falling on your face left the Sun just 8 minutes go. In that 8 minutes it traveled 93 million miles. Those photons are hauling and when they strike your PV module you can convert that motion to electricity. As technology, photovoltaics are not as glitzy as that new sport utility vehicle the television tells us to crave. But in many ways PV is a much more elegant and sophisticated technology. Whether it be for your business or for your home, why not invest in Solar Panels.Today's solar panels are bombproof and often come with a 25 year warranty or more. Your solar panels may outlive you. They are also modularyou can start with a small system and expand it over time. Solar panels are light (weighing about 20 pounds), so if you move you can take the system with you. Grid interactive systems and net metering Some utilities object to net metering. Usually the issue isn't money, but control. They don't want your juice on their wires or they don't want to set a precedent that could come back to haunt them. There are some distributed generation technologies coming down the pike that utilities definitely won't want to net meter, including fuel cells and 50 kw microturbines the size of beer kegs. However in the USA and Australia electricity suppliers are becomg more supportive of solar enegy buy back schemes.Also busineses can now take advantage of different suppliers of both gas and electricity and shop for the most economical. Utility Ecchange is one such company in the UK that gives comparison business gas prices for their customers. Solar advocates delight in bashing utilities. But for all its faults, the industry has strung an amazing amount of wire. Rarely is an American or an Australian, or a European more than 50 feet from an electrical outlet. It's an everyday miracle we take for granted. From an engineering perspective, the grid is a tremendous resource. A grid-tied PV system will be more efficient, arguably greener, and certainly cheaper than a backwoods one. More efficient because the inverter can track the modules "maximum power curve" rather than the lower voltage needed to recharge batteries. Arguably greener because you don't need batteries, which contain caustic chemicals, emit sulfurous gases, and eventually wear out. And much cheaper because, with the grid as backup, you don't have to buy batteries, charge controller, control panel or generator.Right there, you've knocked up to $5,000 off a

typical stand-alone system. Getting the price down is critical, because no one on the grid needs PV, at least not in the same way an off-grid homeowner needs it. We've already got juice. It may be from a nuke, it may be from a coal plant, it may be hydro (or "embodied salmon"), but it's there. To sell grid-connected PV systems you've got to get the price down and then help prospective customers understand that solar is to coal as a croissant is to a Twinkie. On a gut level, many people already grasp the key difference between fossil fuels and renewable energy. One is stealing from our kids, the other isn't. The current cost of solar panels means that grid-interactive systems do not pay for themselves in terms of the cost saving when compared with electricity from the grid. In spite of this, many people with grid connected houses are choosing to install grid-interactive solar systems, as they do not create any greenhouse gases when generating electricity, unlike coal-fired power plants. Numerous studies have demonstrated that the equivalent amount of electricity used to make a solar panel is generated by the panel within the first two years of operation, hence a solar panel will repay its greenhouse gas "debt" within this time.

Wind Power
Societies have taken advantage of wind power for thousands of years. The first known use was in 5000 BC when people used sails to navigate the Nile River. Persians had already been using windmills for 400 years by 900 AD in order to pump water and grind grain. Windmills may have even been developed in China before 1 AD, but the earliest written documentation comes from 1219. Cretans were using "literally hundreds of sail-rotor windmills [to] pump water for crops and livestock." Today, people are realizing that wind power "is one of the most promising new energy sources" that can serve as an alternative to fossil fuel-generated electricity. The cost of wind has dropped by 15% with each doubling of installed capacity worldwide, and capacity has doubled three times during the 1990s and 2000's.As of 1999, global wind energy capacity topped 10,000 megawatts, which is approximately 16 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. That's enough to serve over 5 cities the size of Miami, according to the American Wind Energy Association. Five Miamis may not seem significant, but if we make the predicted strides in the near future, wind power could be one of our main sources of electricity. Is your utility company offering your family the best rates? Though wind energy is now more affordable, more available, and pollution-free, it does have some drawbacks. Wind power suffers from the same lack of energy density as direct solar radiation. The fact that it is a "very diffuse source" means that "large numbers of wind generators (and thus large land areas) are required to produce useful amounts of heat or electricity." But wind turbines cannot be erected everywhere simply because many places are not windy enough for suitable power

generation. When an appropriate place is found, building and maintaining a wind farm can be costly. It "is a highly capital-intensive technology." If the interest rates charged for manufacturing equipment and constructing a plant are high, then a consumer will have to pay more for that energy. "One study found that if wind plants were financed on the same terms as gas plants, their cost would drop by nearly 40%." Fortunately, the more facilities built, the cheaper wind energy is. But there is increasing energy being put in finding many other alternative sources of power and making them viable, such as geothermal and wave energy and biomass.
ENERGY Abundant renewable energy sources Powering the Philippines requires taking greater advantage of the nation's renewable sources, including geothermal and solar, and using cleaner burning fossil fuels like natural gas Energy is a vital component of every country's economy, and reducing dependence on foreign energy sources is an important goal for many governments. The Philippines has made great strides in this area in the past three decades, and is moving forward with several projects that will further reduce the need to import energy. As a country with relatively small proven oil reserves and low oil production, the Philippines is forced to seek sources of energy from other areas. The inauguration of the Malampaya natural gas field in 2001 helped move the country towards a less expensive and more domestic energy supply profile. Through investments in local energy infrastructure, the Philippines has managed to slash its dependence on foreign energy sources from 92% in 1973 to 40% now. That figure will fall even more in the near future, as some ambitious projects begin producing even more energy locally. Some of the projects will use fossil fuels, such as natural gas, to increase domestic energy production.

The Philippine government recently passed the Renewable Energy Law in an effort to help spur the development of renewable energy sources

Nevertheless, the countrys long-term goal is to focus more and more on renewable sources to increase local energy production, as the technology becomes more advanced and less expensive. Through technology and mass production, renewable energy is going to become a reality, says Antonio Cailao, president and CEO of the Philippine National Oil Company, or PNOC. I am very much in love with solar energy because among all the sources of renewable energy, it is the only renewable energy which is not site-specific. The sun is in Spain, the sun is in Germany, the sun is the same everywhere, and so that is why it is not site-specific. The government has passed legislation in recent years to help spur the development of renewable energy. One was the Renewable Energy Law, which identifies major sources of emerging energy, such as geothermal, hydro, solar, wind, ocean and biomass. Solar is a particularly interesting area, as the country has abundant sun and an industrial base capable of producing the semi-conductors and other components needed to build solar farms. The governments goal is for the country to get 40% of its primary energy requirements from renewable sources by the end of 2013. That objective is very achievable, after getting as high as 35% in recent years with good amounts of rain to power hydroelectric generation. The country already has a very important source of renewable energy, from geothermal generating plants. About 27% of electricity generated in the Philippines comes from these plants, which use heat from deep in the earth to generate steam and turn turbines, making it the biggest user of wet-steam geothermal technology, and the second-biggest producer on the planet of electricity using geothermal energy, after the U.S. At the Energy Investment Forum last December held in Makati City, Secretary of Energy Rene Almendras stated concerning renewable energies, the Department of Energy (DoE) will take the lead, will push and will make sure that things will happen. To everyone working in the field of renewables, the DoE promises the highly anticipated opportunities will soon materialize. Renewable energy will in the long term be able to supply much of the countrys power needs, but in the shorter and medium term the Philippines has plans to use its natural gas resources to make its power sector more efficient, less expensive, and less dependent on foreign fuels.

Rene Almendras Secretary of Energy

The vision I believe in is that renewable energy will reach parity and advance periodically compared with fossil fuels, says Mr. Cailao. The plan the Department of Energy has is to launch the gasification of the Philippines, which will be the intermediate step/fuel before we move to renewable energy. The country currently has one functioning gas field, called Malampaya. The field is located about 310 miles west of Luzon Island and has estimated reserves of as many as 3.7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 85 million barrels of condensate. The field supplies three generating stations that between them

Antonio Cailao President and CEO of PNOC INTERVIEW

provide 2,700 megawatts of electricity for the island, out of 7,600 megawatts of total generating capacity on Luzon. The lack of a gas pipeline network greatly limits the use of the indigenous gas, but the government is planning to invest in the kind of infrastructure needed to supply gas to much of the country. The first step of the plan will be building the Batangas-Manila pipeline, known as the BatMan project. This pipeline will go into the heart of Manila to service the industrial, commercial, transport and retail sectors, and the generating plants, explains Mr. Cailao. Can you imagine lowering the cost of fuel by over 50% by having gas? It is a big boost to the economy, and that is also income for the foreign investors who would like to come in. The addition of a pipeline network will reduce the need for foreign energy by another three percentage points, Mr. Cailao estimates. Using more gas will have other benefits as well. Natural gas burns more cleanly than oil, producing less greenhouse gases. Natural gas is also cheaper than fuels such as diesel. Even as gas pipelines are extended around the country, the Filipino government and private businesses will continue to invest in cheaper and more efficient renewable energy, with the goal of eventually cutting the need for energy imports to a bare minimum, a goal countries around the world should share.