Amid expensive electricity in Philippines, Bohol project eyed to become global energy conservation model
SINGAPORE — Is it “More Fun in the Philippines” or “More expensive in the Philippines”?
According to sustainable design experts, it is not expensive to live in the Philippines — it is “extremely” expensive.
“Living in the Philippines is getting extremely expensive,” frowned John Farrell, Director of sustainable design company XCO2, which stands for “cross-out carbon dioxide.”
At a recent media briefing in Singapore, he offered an explanation as to why electricity is among those that makes living in the Philippines very costly.
“Well, the Philippines has been growing so fast. And it’s been a country spread over many, many islands. And it’s not as easy as with other countries with one single land mass and it’s easy to lay out the infrastructure and it’s easy to share one master grid and share energy sources and energy networks. In the Philippines, it’s extremely expensive to foresee and extend the infrastructure. Nowadays, the country is growing so fast, but the infrastructure development cannot go as fast.”
As such, together with a team of international designers formed by Bohol-based Alturas Group, Farrell has been among those designing the sustainable master plan of P25-billion mixed-use development Panglao Shores in Bohol.
“One of our inspirations of sustainability is actually the people of Bohol. They’re traditionally a very, very self-sufficient people,” he said.
They want the development to still exist in 10, 15 or more years to come, so the first step in their process is to work with the people and ensure their future self-sufficiency.
“The first step is we’re not focusing on technology. We’re focusing on getting the building, the architecture, the master plan to be self-sufficient, reducing energy demand, using bio air design, making sure people are comfortable and they don’t rely on air-condition. To ensure that we harvest rain water, while treating sewage water… to be able to reuse as much energy as possible…”
According to Bill Barnett of award-winning hospitality industry consultancy firm C9 Hotelworks Company Limited, the Philippines has among the most expensive electricity in the world, so their goal at Panglao Shores is to lower the property’s energy consumption from day one.
Solar panels, rain water collection
The first step in their design and construction, therefore, is to make the property architecturally sustainable, so their sustainable design framework is their project’s DNA, shared Farrell.
It is hard to harvest water when it does not rain a lot, so their strategy, he explained, is to use water only for human and animal consumption and for energy, they plan to harness solar energy through panels that will produce a shared energy network within the community.
“That’s also we want, to be self-sufficient onsite and not rely on the national grid that’s very expensive but also very unreliable.”
They said they are building reservoirs for captured rainwater, because the island’s current water is not drinkable. This water is to be filtered and stored in reusable glass bottles.
Rain collection is because it is “incredibly hard to get clean water from the ground because what happens is the sea water gets on the ground, so the ground water becomes saline. So we need to capture the rain, it’s not saline, as soon as possible before it gets to the ground. And reuse them for drinking water or for irrigation,” Farrell expounded.
Electric vehicles
Since it is important for them to reuse energy and reduce energy demand, Farrell said, “We’re trying to reduce the use of fossil fuel by using electric vehicles onsite. (There will be) charging points for motor vehicles onsite.”
Included in their 10-year program’s Phase 1 is building three-dimensional models and testing the energy performance — that is, testing through computer simulation how much energy is going to be used by every machine in the property. That approach, said Farrell, is to see energy consumption now and in many years to come.
“Usually, the values in the hotel industry is based on discounts and cash flows — not how much a hotel spends but how much it earns,” Barnett expounded. “So if we lowered the electricity, the better the cash flow, which makes more money sense if you get it right from the start and not just as a reaction.”
Related: Filipinas assemble own ‘Avengers’ design team to develop P25-billion Bohol world-class destination
Natural ventilation, energy efficiency
The project’s second phase, said Farrell, will focus on efficiency in sizing equipment. There will be outdoor shaded spaces and also indoor areas that harness natural ventilation through sea breeze.
Barnett said that 50 to 60% of emissions from any development comes from air-conditioning, so in Panglao Shores, solar control glass windows will be used to reduce room heat, said Farrell.
Apart from determining the right window size to maximize natural lighting as in usual resort design, their design also includes details such as windows facing the east more than the west to capture as much sunlight, Barnett said.
Energy-efficient appliances and their impact on development in the area are also a big consideration.
“Sustainable tourism is not just asking guests to reuse their towels or turn off the lights or tap when not in use,” Barnett espoused. “It starts with using the right materials and setting up the right systems in place.”
What they found is that in this region in Asia, there is a lack of design expertise when it comes to economies of scale in equipment.
“There is a limited number of engineers in the Philippines, but there is so much work happening in the Philippines… so what happens is that a lot of engineers are sizing their equipment based on standard benchmarks and then they just add 50% just because they’re playing safe. Of course, the equipment, by the time the contractor gets involved, it’s almost double in size. You pay twice as much, they take twice as much. That’s not efficiency because if it’s oversized, the efficiency drops, drops down,” Farrell explained.
Like air-conditioning, refrigeration also requires a lot of energy, so having farms onsite would reduce the need for refrigeration, he said.
Related: 'Bring people back to the provinces': New Bohol development to defy urbanizing island cities
Everyone involved
Farrell assured that their project is not “greenwashed” because their sustainability efforts are not going to stop at the design stage but will continue to the operations by applying user engagement from staff to guests — not zero carbon only at day one but they are setting short- and long-term targets.
Through these plans, the property will have about 42% carbon dioxide emission reduction from baseline on the same location, while about 30% CO2 reduction from the baseline has been estimated for the hospital and retail areas, Farrell said.
“The third and final step is renewables. Usually, people skip steps one and two and just jump here — but the more time you invest in steps one and two, the less that you have to spend on renewables,” he noted.
“Renewables,” he said, is an ongoing process and “not just about turning the key and handing it over.”
“We want to make sure to encourage all the occupants, all the homeowners across the development, to have an energy management regimen in place that is always open for continuous improvement.”
