Solar, wind and other renewable sources of energy are slowly joining the country’s power supply mix. Some of them have been in the electricity grid for quite a while, powering many residential homes, buildings and factories. They are the wave of the future and preferred by many in the population, especially those who have been forewarned by the disastrous effects of climate change.
A renewable energy company just this week announced the completion of four new solar farms with a combined power generating capacity of 98 megawatts in the Visayas. Bronzeoak Philippines said all four were fully tested by transmission operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines and their output ready to be sold in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market.
The first of such solar power plants operates in Bais City, Negros Oriental, while the other three are generating electricity from La Carlota City and in the municipality of Manapla, Negros Occidental.
In all, the four solar power plants are now partly supplying the daytime electricity requirements of Dumaguete City and Cebu through the Cebu-Negros undersea cable and seven million people in Negros Occidental and Panay’s four provinces.
Here in the Luzon grid, Ilocos Norte’s wind farms have been supplying the main Philippine island with the exotic form of energy, generating power from the wind. Hydro-electric dams and geothermal energy plants were actually the first to supply clean power to the Philippines back in the 60s, 70s and 80s, or way before green energy became the vogue in the new century.
Renewable sources of energy, indeed, are the future sources of power amid the worldwide call to reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere and put an end to the depletion of the earth’s natural resources.
But renewable forms of energy entail higher production cost. They are costlier to produce compared to the traditional fuel sources, such as oil, coal and natural gas. As a result, the government agreed to grant preferential electricity rates to producers of wind, solar and biomass energy to make their projects viable.
Thus, the electricity bill of a typical household with a power consumption of 200 kilowatt-hours will increase by P24.80 in April, after the government approved the collection of the so-called feed-in-tariff allowance for renewable energy projects.
Consumers will ultimately decide if they want cleaner energy but higher electricity rates. It is a dilemma faced by every consumer in the world.