My apartment

My apartment is 5 mins walk from the SIBAT office in Diliman, Quezon City. It's a studio apartment on the top floor that's nice and breezy and with good views over Manila.

View from my balcony

All the staff at SIBAT are very friendly and have made me welcome. There are usually between 10-20 people in the office depending on the field work schedule. There are frequent parties with lots of eating and drinks - Karaoke is always round the corner.

Len, Neneng, Del, Carlo, Me and Jove at my place

Other actors in electrification of remote off-grid communities

There are various organisations that do similar work to SIBAT in providing energy systems for electrification of remote off-grid communities.

As part of a corporate social responsiblity (CSR) program some large IPPs work in this area. For example the Philippines National Oil Corporation (PNOC) has provided some communities with solar panels. The community pays a 'soft' fee for the electricity generated that covers maintenance costs of batteries and electrical applications. The scheme is limited to a number of communities.

Another commercial organisation, Solar Electric, specialises in renewable energy generation. As well as private ventures, Solar Electric works in partnership with international aid donor organisations (such as USAID) to implement renewable energy systems. Solar Electric have installed a large number of solar systems (and some micro-hydro and small wind) in the Philippines, although their cost per kW of installed capacity is very high compared to SIBAT.

The Department of Energy are attempting to push through a Renewable Energy Bill that will encourage private investment into RE systems. If passed, the RE Bill will allow electricity generating communities that are linked to the grid to sell excess electricity generated back to the grid, and provide a useful income. It is unlikely however that the incentives will make investment into many small remote communities profitable.

The Department of Agriculture has installed a number of solar systems at no cost to the community. Communities have not been required to pay for the electricity generated so no funds are readily available when maintainence is necessary and the systems often stop operating.

SIBAT has a good track record of successful projects that have a long operational lifetime. The key to this success is close collaboration with the community throughout the lifetime of the project. The community helps design the system, and maintain and own it when it is operational. A problem SIBAT faces is the limited number of projects it can undertake. Funding for each project has to be obtained from donor organisations, requiring a large amount of administration effort. Funding rarely covers improving the available facilities or investing in more staff.

There is only one other NGO (YAMOG) working on renewable energy systems in the Philippines but they mainly do work in a different region (Mindanao).

Wind Energy Training

SIBAT organised for me to attend a 2 week conference with the grand title...

'Capacity Building for Wind Power Project Developers, Providers of Engineering consulting Servies and Government Planners on the Conduct of Preparatory Activities for the Development of Wind Power Projects in the Philippines and Vietnam and Adopting European and International Standards'.

25MW wind farm in Bangui Bay, Ilocos Norte

The Phillipines has the best wind resource in South East Asia, with 7,404MW total potential capacity (according to the WWF), but currently only has one 25MW wind farm. A number of large Independent Power Providers (IPPs) have been investigating sites connecting to the main grid for the last 6 years however there are not suitable economic incentives or financial support available, as in Europe or North America, for the project to be profitable. The 25MW site is operated by a Philippine company but the investment and some technical support has come from the Danish International Development Agency. The wind farm passes the additionality test for money from the clean development mechanism (CDM).

The Department of Energy hopes to pass a Renewable Energy Bill in the coming year that would include economic incentives to make wind energy more viable and less of a financial risk. Currently the most suitable application for wind on a large scale in the Philippines is as part of a diesel hybrid system on the many off-grid islands. With the latest technology wind energy can reach up to 65% of installed capacity and can viably displace much of the diesel generated electricity without subsidies.

The training was useful, however I fear not enough influential and powerful people from the necessary government agencies or large banks were present to implement the lessons and recommendations given by the expert training providers to develop the wind sector here in the Philippines. The significant proportion of interest was from commercial IPPs.

View from the narcelle of a 1.65MW wind turbine

The training was intended for the development of large commercial wind farms but a lot of lessons can be learnt for small wind projects. It has given me the opportunity to study the energy sector, hear the experiences of big wind project developers in the Philippines and discuss the project with international wind energy consultants. It included a trip to the wind farm in Ilocos Norte but unfortunately I was unable to attend.