City Hall eyes purchase of 40 solar-wind turbine lamp posts

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City’s Department of Public Services (DPS) will recommend the purchase of 40 solar-wind turbine lampposts to be installed at the Plaza Independencia and mountain barangays in the city.

Each lamppost costs P350,000.

DPS Head Engineer Roberto Cabarrubias said he would not mind recommending to purchase the unit because it is durable, compared to the existing street lights that the city has.

“Nindot man na nga investment. Maganahan ang atong tourists motan-aw ana and maka-save pod ta og bayranan sa electricity,” he told reporters.

Cabarrubias made the pronouncement during the turnover ceremony of the second solar-wind turbine lamppost donated by the Yushin Kougyou Corporation (YKC) to Cebu City Government.

The first lamppost was installed last December at Plaza Sugbo, while the second lamppost, which was completed just last Thursday, was constructed along the Lover’s Lane at the South Road Properties.

These lampposts were donated by the Japanese firm in March 2016 but was not installed right away because of the preparation of the elections, Cabarrubias said.

He said Osmeña instructed him to install the lampposts when the latter assumed office in July last year.

YKC Advisor Yoshikazu Mitsuhashi said the corporation has chosen Cebu City since it has several tourists.

Asked if there will be additional units to be donated, Mitsuhashi said there will be no additional units because the company is just presenting the model to the city for future investments.

“We chose Cebu City because we are sister cities,” he said, adding that the city is one of the “good” tourist cities in the country.

Mitsuhashi said the model is a clean energy business since it uses renewable energy.

He said it would contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emission as it effectively uses the natural resources.

“The lighting source is 24 watts for the main light, 12 watts for the colored lights, and one watt for the wind turbine sport light,” he said.

Mitsuhashi said the battery of the lamppost will last up to four days even without the support of wind and solar power since it is composed of four deep cycle of gel battery.

He said the company is the provider of the model and another Japanese firm is the manufacturer of the lamppost.

“We want to sell this to the people. We donated because we want to see the people how it looks like,” he said.

Mitsuhashi said it is the first model in the Philippines and the company chose Cebu City to showcase its product. (FREEMAN)