Advantage of Renewables; why the Duterte adminstration must adopt it

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Why Pres Duterte Administration should push for renewable energy

The politicians and the advisers and the tycoons in the country engaged in energy development are pushing for coal fired (fossil fuel) plants despite on going  drive for going green.  The coal proponent say that  RE is expensive..  While coal fired plants are cheap in the beginning it becomes costly in the long run because of the coal importation, the health concerns, the environmental degradation.  Wind and solar power are free and have less maintenance expense.

Over 147 gW capacity has been installed worldwide costing $280 billion generating thousands of jobs.

Again to repeat the advantages of RE:

Renewables – as opposed to coal and other fossil fuel industries – typically have a relatively higher labor intensity, which means they spend more on hiring people; have a higher domestic content; and often produce higher-value, better paying, cleaner, and healthier jobs than the fossil fuel industry.

In sum, renewables can:

1. Generate tens of thousands of jobs
2. Save the government money in terms of tax revenue and foreign exchange savings
3. Boost economic growth especially in vulnerable areas suffering from energy poverty
4. Lower the cost of renewable energy for the long run by impacting the spot market
5. Save customers money

The Philippines can speed up the energy revolution that is already underway, turn its back on coal, seize the moment, and lead the way for renewables in Southeast Asia while capitalizing on its success in renewable power generation such as solar and wind, including the manufacturing of solar PV panels. (There is all ready one such company) Embracing the energy revolution and harnessing renewables doesn’t mean bankruptcy and sacrifice. The facts show that it can bring us wealth, cost savings, and employment.

Is Pres Duterte the President that the Renewable Energy sector is waiting for?

Savings from oil and coal importation

Rizal Philippines
July 31, 2016

Yes and no.  Yes because he says so. But he bats for coal power because it is cheap (P3.00 /kwh as what former DOE sec Petilla has said)   So as a political creature, he is not ready for RE yet which can go up as high as P9/kwh.  (But take note this lessens dependence on coal importation and thus saves precious FX reserves)  Good for those in Semirara and other coal mines.  They say they can pulverize the coal to lessen CO2 emission

He merely wants to review the current project proposals at hand which coming from the big ones SMC, Aboitiz are all coal powered.  From GMA network  There are at least 50 coal powered plants in the pipeline.  Some quarters think that the first issue to be addressed are:

       1,  shortage of base load which only coal or hydro can provide (P3.00/kwh)  But hydro in Mindanao is unreliable because of the drought. Only  coal fired plants can provide this.  Hence it is tantalizing for politicians and Duterte is no exception to go for cheaper alternative. and that is coal

      But India is gunning up to 33 gW of wind energy and 90 gW of solar.  Can the Philippines be far behind (20 years behind if we continue on having coal fired plants   From Philnews. (RE challenges in the Philippines)

 Will Duterte push for renewables? And really be green?  In words and in deed.

Political will needed for pushing for renewables

Threats to Renewable Energy

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A number of challenges has been facing the RE sector.  Although much of the world is into RE, even as of 2011 a number of negative things happened to the PV business:

• DOE loan guarantee investigations
• The dawn of a solar trade war between the U.S. and China
• Crashing solar stock prices
• First Solar losing its CEO in a poor executive transition; its stock tanks
• China owning the U.S. in cleantech
• Solyndra, Spectrawatt, and Evergreen bankruptcies
• Incentives for wind and solar being reconsidered in the U.S. and across the globe
• The Beacon Power flywheel bankruptcy
• Ener1 delisted; Westinghouse Solar under threat of delisting

We hope the industry overcomes these challenges and growing pains

Large scale NaS battery from NGK insulators

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NaS energy storage system soluiton

I read in Fortune Magazine the NaS (Sodium Sulfur) Battery energy storage system of NGK Insulators of Japan.  They have up to 15 years life and can come in containerized form for easy installation. They have installations of as low as 50 kW up to 300 kW in various locations.

This makes wind and solar energy more stable with the storage system.  We all know that there is no energy from solar panels 2/3 of the day or during rainy or inclement weather.   Or when there is no wind.

Thus an energy storage system would be a necessity. An ideal RE system would consist of a wind, solar farm, and  storage system.

NGK would seem to have come with a viable ready solution

The only supplier of NaS battery is NGK. It bought the technology from Ford Motor Corporation jointly developed this with TEPPCO (the one that runs the nuclear power plant)   The battery is made from readily available materials:   aluminum, sodium from sea water as well as sulfur.  The battery has 15 years life and good up to 2,500 cycles. It operates at temp of 300 degrees.  The sodium is can tach fire when oxidized or when it contacts with water and thus safety is important in its use\usage

The only other viable system for power storage is the hydro as in Kalayaan Laguna.  The output of hydro at night is used to pump up Laguna lake water which generates energy during daytime for industrial consumption.  But such facilities are limited by geography.

NaS works for wind, solar, and concentrated solar power (where the suns rays are collected to generate steam to generate electricity.   Electricity generated at daytime can be stored at the batteries, and the heat can be stored at salt towers too.

Cost would be about $0.08 per kwatt hour (P4.00) so that makes solar power using storage very expensive even if LCOE is P5.00

There was a fire incident in its plant in Tsukuba Japan and NGK has temporarily suspended its production.  NGK has requested those who bought the batteries to refrain from using the batteries until such time that the cause of fire has been determined. From Greentech media

Xtreme power also experienced a small fire at its plant in Hawaii and farm.

From Energy Storage News

First Local Solar Manufacturer in the Philippines

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In a recent meeting last week, I met the President of a newly acquired Rural Bank and I found out that they are about to start operations of a local PV manufacturing plant, the first of its kind in the country soon.  The plant is capable of producing 200,000 panels a month (that is about  1000 kW worth of panels every month. And half of that would be for export.

The man used to to head a major chemical firm in the country, put up a petrochem plant

He expects mega sales from that.  He said that they eliminated the use of silver as a conductor and this means lower lower price.

He promised to email me the prices which he said are way way way low vs imported and China products

I said that with the rural bank, we can provide solar financing that is affordable

PNoy Administration was not pro renewable energy; what about Digong

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This author stopped making posts at this site under then admin of PNoy.  It was clearly not pro renewable energy (or ERC or DOE for that matter)  It was political and favored fossil fuel because power from coal is cheap.  P3/kwh

1. Thus the FIT for solar was not attractive enough

2.  The rooftop solar panels could not get traction because:

      1.  No decent affordable financing was available
      2.  The net metering scheme of a DU clearly discouraged solar rooftop.

Of course we could not blame the DU if they entered into take or buy provision (ie) they would have to pay the IPP whether or not the power contracted was used or not.  The rooftop panels would lessen the demand and they have to pay still for unused power.   This is the real reason behind their adamance to let net metering continue;  not the hullabaloo that it would destroy electrical system.

Would Duterte who promised bias towards renewable energy really mean that?