MANILA, Philippines — Installing solar panels on public housing units, barangay covered courts and other government buildings will help the Philippines transition faster to renewable energy, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said Wednesday, adding Romblon is a good example for how this can be done.
Relocation sites and public housing areas often have issues with access to utilities like water and power because of their distance from urban centers.
Related Stories
"The housing backlog is more than six million. Imagine if the current and new housing units to be built are installed with solar? Imagine our barangay covered courts powered by renewable energy," Hontiveros, who has filed a bill to give beneficiaries of social housing programs access to loans for solar power systems, said.
"This is the kind of paradigm shift we need in the energy sector," she also said.
Solar power systems are still expensive at around P24,000 for a basic set. Solar rooftops that produce more power than that can cost from P90,000 to P365,000, according to prices advertised online.
Hontiveros said the cost has meant poor Filipinos, particularly those at relocation sites, will likely not be able to afford having them installed
The senator cited initiatives bu the Romblon Electric Cooperative, which she said gets 40% of its energy mix from mini-hydro, wind and solar energy. She said that ROMELCO has installed solar panels on four barangay covered courts in the province.
"If Romelco can produce 200kW of solar power from four barangay covered courts, then we can produce millions more of kilowatt capacity assuming we solarize all the covered courts," Hontiveros also said, adding there are at least 23,931 covered courts across the country where solar panels might be installed.
"Making Romelco a model, solarizing these covered courts can generate 1,245MW or 1.2GW of solar power," she said, adding solar power systems could also be installed in schools and other government buildings.