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Maybe you have heard lately about the problem that water hyacinth has brought to the people of Cotabato City. It clogged Rio Grande de Mindanao causing flooding problem on almost all areas of the city.
Well, President Aquino said Wednesday he will direct the Department of Energy (DoE) to review the possible use of water hyacinth as a source of biofuel.
But what is water hyacinth? (note: water hyacinth is not the same with water lily) According to wikipedia water hyacinth are a free-floating perennial aquatic plant. With broad, thick, glossy, ovate leaves, water hyacinth may rise above the surface of the water as much as 1 meter in height. The leaves are 10–20 cm across, and float above the water surface. They have long, spongy and bulbous stalks. The feathery, freely hanging roots are purple-black.
“Malaki yung incentives to go into biofuels under our various laws, so I will be asking the DoE to evaluate, tutukan kung pwedeng mai-transform, itong hyacinth into fuel, to generate electricity,” Aquino added.
I hope that this plan materialize sooner so that people from Cotabato City and nearby places would not suffer anymore from excessive flooding but would enjoy the benefits if ever all this water hyacinth are converted into biofuels.
This is an additional source of renewable energy.
source: Manila Bulletin and wikipedia
"Renewable energy is expensive right now because these are just emerging technologies. But for the long-term, we are looking at grid parity, if not, maybe renewable energy can even be cheaper,"
- Philippine Energy Undersecretary Jose Layug
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Wikipedia define grid parity as the point at which alternative means of generating electricity is at least as cheap as grid power. But what is grid power? We'll, grid power is the power or electricity supplied by conventional source like diesel fuel and for solar energy, it is achieved first in areas with abundant sun and high costs for electricity such as in California, Hawaii, Spain and Japan - none in the Philippines yet.
Many solar power advocates predict that grid parity will occur in the near future. Grid parity has been reached in Hawaii and other islands that otherwise use fossil fuel (diesel fuel) to produce electricity.
Here in the Philippines we are slowly gaining on grid parity momentum as the government has set its sights on achieving grid parity for the Philippines in 20 years with the launch of the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP) on Monday. Philippine Energy Undersecretary Jose Layug said that with the rising cost of fuel, grid parity is not difficult to achieve for the country. "Renewable energy is expensive right now because these are just emerging technologies. But for the long-term, we are looking at grid parity, if not, maybe renewable energy can even be cheaper," Layug said. He added that at its current state, non-renewable electricity sources cost about 5 to 5.50 centavos per kilowatt-hour (kWh). "But every time the oil goes up, we see electricity prices rising as well," he pointed out.
With the NREP, Layug said the government hopes to triple the country’s dependence on renewable energy to 15,000 megawatts in the next 20 years.
Department of Energy data shows that the total installed capacity in the country as of the first quarter of 2010 is 15,896 MW, led largely by coal-based power plants with an installed capacity of 4,523 MW.
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In 10 years’ time, some 30 percent of households in the country will have their own solar panels, powering their electricity consumption via solar energy according to Theresa Cruz-Capellan, president of the Philippine Solar Power Alliance (PSPA). But misconceptions about solar power by Filipinos both from the private sector and the government maybe became a hindrance.
“Don’t discriminate technology that can benefit specific individuals,” she stresses, noting further that, over the long term, solar power will be the choice resource as this can be put up at the point of consumption or retail, unlike other renewable energy sources.
This statement from Capellan was also backed by Senator Edgardo J. Angara as quoted from the official press release from the Senate of the Philippines stating that:
"Market researchers and think tanks are predicting renewable energy sources to cost less than fossil fuels in the coming years, a development that should compel the government to invest in them as early as possible"
Angara also added that the multinational technology conglomerate General Electric Co. (GE) has issued a statement saying that solar power will be cheaper to produce than fossil fuels and nuclear reactors because of innovations in the field.
I also think that this will be the future of renewable energy not only here in the Philippines but also around the world because of the problem that was brought about by conventional energy sources.
