Vivant to energize schools via solar

MANILA, Philippines — After completing a European Union-funded project, Vivant Corp. is looking to continue its initiatives to energize schools and add solar power curriculum in senior high school.

Vivant, through Vivant Foundation Inc., and its partners recently completed an EU-funded project – Renewable Energy for Livelihood and Youth (RELY), which aims to promote use of renewable energy to improve lives and foster climate change mitigation in poor and remote communities.

With its completion, the project energized 16 off-grid public schools using solar energy, upgraded technical-vocational education of five senior high schools, and provided livelihood assistance to 12 people’s organizations in Cebu, Bohol and Palawan.

Since the EU-funded project is completed, Vivant Foundation executive director Shem Jose Garcia said the group intends to continue the project under Project Liadlaw.

Vivant first launched Project Liadlaw in January 2018, which aims to help the Department of Education (DepEd) energize off-grid public schools through solar, thereby improving learning and learning conditions for the school children while promoting renewable energy.

“This year we have added another senior high school – this is funded by Vivant – in Coron. Coron wasn’t part of project RELY because at that time, there was no school offering electrical installation and maintenance, so we partnered with a senior high school there to provide that,” Garcia said.

Apart from installing solar panels, Vivant is also pushing to update the electrical installation and maintenance (EIM) tech-voc track offering of a nearby senior high school by including solar technology in the curriculum.

“We’re still working with DepEd to make a curriculum in solar nationwide, not just our own projects, but to increase the skills of all electricians graduating senior high school,” Garcia said.

The initial success of Project Liadlaw led to project RELY, which is one of the seven awardees under the EU-Access to Sustainable Energy Programme (ASEP). It received a P120 million (2.2 million Euros) funding from the EU, as well as additional financing from the Federal Government of Germany.

ASEP is a joint project of the Department of Energy (DOE) and the EU that aims to assist the government of the Philippines in expanding its sustainable energy generation to meet the growing needs of its economy and provide energy access to the poor and marginalized sector.