In 2015, world leaders came together in Paris, France to discuss a landmark accord that addresses the negative impacts of climate change and sets up a course of action to limit such impacts. In this deal, leaders from all over the world united towards a common goal of significant reductions of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is the major cause of climate change.
But here in the Philippines, we are also fighting another battle on top of climate change. Our country's power industry is controlled by only a few individuals and businesses and they have gained this amount of control through coal power plants.
The private sector was tapped to bring competition in our power industry, but instead of competing with each other, they connived with each other and raised the prices even more.
Because of these, our country's power industry has become the cash cow of these businesses and became one of their top sources of income. And today, as if they have not earned enough from us, these businesses are even pushing to have more coal power plants as our energy source. While most other countries, including our neighbors in the ASEAN region, are actively moving away from coal.
And this is not because our country has a lot of coal reserves. In fact, we import a whopping 75% of our coal supply mostly from Indonesia and Australia. Not only is coal dirty and more expensive compared to renewable energy technologies, it also exposes our power industry to political unrest, price volatility and the risk of unfavorable foreign exchange rates.
What Can We Do?
By 2050, it is estimated that solar will be our world's main source of energy, alongside wind. The main difference between the two, however, is that wind energy can only be produced in large wind farms, while solar energy can be produced even on our very rooftops.
This means that we, ourselves, can help make a change in the world and also in our country.
By having a solar energy system, we become independent power producers and lessen our dependence on coal energy that pushes humanity at the brink of extinction and feeds our country's big businesses.
And if all Filipino homes will have a solar panel installation, we can gain back the control of our power industry and not allow these big businesses to take advantage of us anymore.
Since a solar panel installation requires a large investment, not all of us can afford it. However, that should not stop us from making our contribution in this battle. We can help spread this message among our family and friends. This will also have a big impact since most of us are not even aware of our situation and the battles that we are fighting.
Financial Benefits of Solar Energy
As they say: "money makes the world go round". No matter how effective solar energy is in lowering our carbon dioxide emissions and reducing our dependence on dirty and expensive coal energy, if it will not benefit us financially, it would not be successful.
Fortunately for us, solar energy also offers financial benefits to homeowners. For one, you will be able to reduce your monthly energy consumption and thus, your monthly electric bills. These savings pile up, allowing you to earn back your initial investment. Typical ROI or return of investment for solar energy systems is 6-7 years. It's lifetime, however, is 25-30 years!
We are already paying one of the highest electricity rates in all of Asia(at par with much developed countries such as Singapore and Japan) but our electricity rates just keeps on increasing. But since you are already generating energy for your own consumption, these electricity price hikes will hurt much less for you.
If many Filipino homes would utilize solar energy to reduce their monthly electric consumption, our total electricity demand would also be reduced by a substantial amount. And by the law of supply and demand, this will eventually bring our electricity prices down.
Our Mission Towards a Solar Powered Philippines
Imagine our country where most of the energy consumption is produced right on the very houses of the families living on it and not controlled by the few rich and powerful people. Imagine a very progressive country where all industries thrive because they are not burdened by high electricity prices. This is the country that we could and should be.
BE PART OF A SOLAR ENERGY REVOLUTION TODAY!
The only way that we can make this a reality is that if we, ourselves act. We at Andal Solar would like to help you and our country achieve this grand goal of a progressive solar-powered Philippines. If you are interested and would like to know more about solar energy systems and the financial benefits that it can give, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Engr. Jet Andal has 6 years of experience in the design and installation of residential, commercial and utility-scale solar PV systems. Together, and with the use of solar energy, let us help make the world a better place. You can click here to read all of our other blogs. For aspiring solar PV engineers, you can also check out his Solar PV Engineering Ebook on Amazon on this link.