Electricity is expensive in Philippines, compounded by growing shortages. The government has responded by leasing more power, paying big customers to generate their own power (probably by diesel), yet these seem stopgap measures. With so many islands, distributed energy via rooftop solar could help substantially.
The power profile of the three major island groups is quite different. Visayas and Mindanao get half their power from renewable sources, geothermal and hydro respectively, while Luzon relies heavily on coal. Yet new growth for all three will mainly be coal. (Big hydro is controversial, some think big dams are so damaging they shouldn’t be classified as renewable. Yet, the power does indeed come from a non-carbon source.)
The three main island regions of Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao each have distinct generation profiles. In the northern part of the country, Luzon’s capacity is mainly powered by fossil fuels, with anticipated capacity additions of more than 500 MW, most of which will be coal-fired. Visayas, in central Philippines, currently relies heavily on its geothermal resources, but has plans to add 300 MW of coal capacity by 2017. In the south, Mindanao relies heavily on its hydropower resources, with plans for both additional hydropower capacity and additional coal-fired generation to increase system reliability.
Their Secretary of Energy says rooftop solar actually cheaper than coal.
“As a simple example, the cost of electricity from a coal plant can run up to P5.50 per kilowatt hour, plus P6.50 for distribution and transmission, which amounts to P12.00. If you install solar panels on your rooftop, you will only spend P9.00 per kilowatt hour for generation and no cost for distribution or transmission. This already saves you up to P3 per kilowatt hour.”
Let’s hope Philippines makes a big push towards rooftop solar.