SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
RESOURCES
IN THE PHILIPPINES

Submitted By:

Dana Franchesca M. Dichoso

Submitted To:

Lawrence Niño Whyte

Renewable or alternative energy requirements are frequently proposed to

address these concerns, and are currently in place, in various forms, at the federal

and state levels of government. These policies specify a certain portion of the energy

supply from a renewable energy, either as an absolute amount of renewable energy

supplied into the market or as a percentage of the energy supply. In the electricity

market, these requirements are generally known as Renewable Portfolio Standards

(RPS), and in the motor vehicle transportation fuels market, they are referred to as

Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS). The details of individual requirements and the

energy sources that qualify under them vary considerably. The requirements

generally include electricity from wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, wave, tidal,

landfill waste, and biomass sources. For motor vehicle transportation fuels, the

requirements typically include ethanol and biodiesel. Most requirements exclude

fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, and oil) and nuclear power but sometimes allow

combined heat and power systems fueled by fossil fuels.

Policy makers at the federal and state levels of government are debating

actions to reduce Philippine greenhouse gas emissions and dependence on oil as an

energy source. Several concerns drive this debate: sharp rises in energy prices,

increasing unease about the risks of climate change, energy security, and interest in

expanding the domestic renewable energy industry. These policies specify that a

certain portion of the energy supply come from renewable energy sources.

Renewable energy requirements are frequently proposed to address these concerns,

and are currently in place, in various forms, at the federal and state levels of

government.

Renewable energy implementation is important to the Philippines for several

reasons. The geographic characteristics of the country make it vulnerable to the

adverse effects of climate change. Rising sea levels are a threat because the

Philippines is an archipelago with many cities located in coastal areas. As the

coastline recedes due to rising seas, coastal cities become vulnerable to flooding.

Climate change has also been linked to changing weather patterns and extreme

weather events.
 ARTICLE

ALTERNATIVE AND RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES

IN THE PHILIPPINES AND WHERE THEY ARE

Source: Manila Standard

With an abundance of alternative, renewable energy sources such as wind and

the sun, there really is no reason that the Philippines cannot be at the forefront of a

renewable energy movement. We have sufficient resources that can be harnessed to

produce stable power needed to electrify homes and fuel businesses. While we still

have a long way to go, we are encouraged by the fact that the renewable energy

sector has seen tremendous growth in the last four years.

The Burgos Wind Farm, for instance, a 150-megawatt new power plant that

commenced operations in November 2014. Touted as one of the biggest wind farms

in Southeast Asia, it is projected to not just provide 370 gigawatt-hours of electricity,

which would power approximately two million households but could also displace

an estimated 200,000 tons of carbon emissions annually.

MW of its solar plant in Negros in the southern Philippines in May last year and

another 30 MW are under construction.

According to the company, the SaCaSol plant is expected to provide

approximately 31,610,473 kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity annually to the

Visayas Grid, which is currently suffering from brownouts and low voltage

problems. Then there are the solar panels being installed on the roof of the country’s

biggest malls. The Philippines may have been slow in adopting renewable energy,

but it has been catching up. In fact, there is a goal to make renewable energy account

for 50% of the total energy mix by the year 2030, when demand for energy is

forecast to exceed 30,000MW.

of Energy approving a total of 616 renewable energy projects last year, we can look

forward to a cleaner energy infrastructure. Whether these will be enough to fulfill

the 50% by 2030 objective is not certain, but at the very least, we know that progress

is being made.
 Renewable Energy Spots in the Philippines

Source: Solenergy

The Philippines as a tropical archipelago has the potential to generate a lot of

energy from natural resources. In recent years, solar panels in the Philippines have

come to the forefront in cost efficiency with regular consumers. In truth, the

Philippines has been generating energy from renewable resources for a long while

now. It has only been in recent history that more and more of the Filipino people

are recognizing the benefits of renewable energies as an alternative to oil and carbon.

Listed below are the renewable energies found in the Philippines, as well as the

geographic location of the power plants where they can be found.

Moving water is a powerful source of energy. The power harnessed from

moving bodies of water is called hydroelectric power. The Philippines make use of

two methods in order to harness power; dam storage or impoundment, and run-of-

river. While impoundment makes use of man-made dams in order to store water,

run-of-river relies on flowing bodies of water like waterfalls. Both methods turn a

turbine in order to generate power. Hydroelectric power plants in the Philippines

are located in Pangasinan, Benguet, Laguna, Isabela, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Ilocos

Sur, Bohol, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Bukidnon, Davao del Sur, and Misamis

Oriental.

Geothermal Power

Geothermal energy comes from the heat beneath the Earth’s surface. There

are two methods of extracting geothermal energy used in the Philippines: the flash

steam and the binary cycle. Geothermal energy extracted through flash steaming

extracts water with a temperature greater than 182 °C using steam pipes. The steam

is used to power turbines that generate energy, while the remaining water is released

back into the ground. The binary process extracts water at a lower temperature than

flash steaming. The extracted water is then used to boil a working liquid with a
lower boiling point that will power the turbine. The water is also released back into

the ground. Geothermal plants in the Philippines are located in Laguna, Sorsogon,

Albay, Batangas, Negros Occidental, Leyte, and North Cotabato.

Solar Power

Solar energy is used as a source of energy in the Philippines through industrial

sized photovoltaic plants in the country. The Philippines has only recently

incorporated large scale solar farms in the country, despite the fact that the country

is geographically located in a region that receives a high amount of sunlight each

year. Major solar farms in the Philippines can be found in Cavite, Pampanga, Ilocos

Norte, and Cagayan de Oro.

Like water, moving air also generates energy through wind turbines that

supply kinetic energy through mechanical power. The turbines then power a

generator to produce energy. Wind power plants in the Philippines are located in

Ilocos Norte, Rizal, Guimaras, and Aklan.

Biomass Energy

Biomass energy is similar to fossil fuel in that it is combusted in order to boil

water to produce steam that will drive a generator. Being an agricultural country,

the Philippines is rich in natural resources like bagasse, rice husks, and coconut

husks are used instead of fossil fuel. Biomass power plants in the Philippines are

located in Isabela, Nueva Ecija, Rizal, Laguna, Isabela, and Metro Manila.

The Philippines has plenty of sources for generating energy through the

renewable energy plants spread out in the country. At present, there have been an

increased number of consumers incorporating the use of solar panels in the

Philippines. This rise in awareness has sparked the Filipino community to recognize

the many benefits of having clean energies powering our homes and businesses.
REFERENCES

 http://solenergy.com.ph/renewable-energy-spots-philippines/

 http://manilastandard.net/news/ts-29th-anniversary-

issue/200526/alternative-and-renewable-energy-resources-in-the-

philippines-and-where-they-are.html