Environmental groups and clean-energy companies have recently demonstrated various new eco-friendly technologies, such as energy-efficient appliances and devices that run on renewables. Many people say renewable-energy sources such as wind, solar, geothermal and small-scale hydropower also offer countries the means to improve their energy security and spur economic development.
Renewable energy, unlike fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, does not release heat-trapping greenhouse gases, which most scientists believe cause global warming and disrupt climate and weather patterns.
In many countries, the transition to clean energy is increasingly recognized as an excellent investment. Due to rapid cost reduction, solar is a growing part of the solution that includes electric vehicles, energy efficiency, wind, bioenergy, geothermal and other renewable sources.
Compared with business as usual with oil and coal, renewable energy is downright cheap.
“Earth Day renews our commitment as stewards of the Earth,” said Heherson Alvarez, presidential adviser on climate change. “Renewable, clean-energy technologies protect air quality and save resources—a fitting way to mark Earth Day.”
Alvarez added the idea behind clean tech is simple: Improve the efficiency of information-based businesses, while at the same time reduce their consumption and pollution. These businesses, he said, can lead the way toward eco-minded industry and, with the help of the government, create jobs and begin the economic-recovery process.
SOLAR and wind power, championed by innovators like SWEP’s Ferdinand Raquelsantos, are enjoying a boost along with other renewables.Clean technology
Growing concerns about energy security and exhaust gas emissions from vehicles have increased interest in alternative transportation fuels. In recent times Philippine companies have started seeing exciting opportunities in renewables and green tech.
One such example is the E-3 or electric tricycles, which were introduced last December in Taguig City. The newly locally built electric tricycle is capable of carrying a maximum payload of 800 kilos or about eight persons, including the driver.
Electric Vehicle Solutions president and CEO Sean Gerard Villoria said 20 units of battery-operated fiberglass tricycles are now plying the Fort route. It can carry four to eight passengers, and it runs on 1,000-watt motors and 60V/100 AH.
“These electric tricycles were designed to be a cost-effective, highly efficient, ultra-low exhaust-emission vehicle [that’s] capable of equaling or exceeding present vehicle performance, safety and customer-appeal standards,” Villoria said. Villoria explained that the electric vehicle has an engine that can run at the speed of 40-60 kph, and is powered by five rechargeable batteries. “We support electric vehicles as one viable solution because they are highly efficient compared with traditional combustion engines,” Villoria said.
In 2007 the Green Renewable Independent Power Producer Inc. (GRIPP) also introduced 25 electric jeepneys that ply the roads of Makati and other pilot areas of the country. The vehicles run on batteries charged overnight by a power plant fueled by biogas that, in turn, is generated from the organic waste from the city’s markets and households. It can run for 65-80 km on a single charge, and is charged over a period of eight to 10 hours.
GRIPP hopes the e-jeepney will serve as a model for other cities to address their environmental problems using low-carbon technologies, thereby creating a new advocacy in support of climate-change mitigation. The group aims to increase its units to 50 by end of 2010, after the Land Transportation Office granted normal registration for the e-jeepney.
Wind- and solar-powered energy are the trend of the future for generating electricity, according to the Solar and Wind Electric Power Inc. (SWEP), a Philippine-based company that promotes renewable energy using solar panels and wind turbines.
But according to Ferdinand Raquelsantos, president of SWEP, a great majority of people in the country are not yet fully aware of the system application compared with Europe and North America.
“We see a lot of interest, but the batting average is only around 7 percent. Right now, it’s a split between households and business, though the latter takes about 20 percent more panels in terms of sales,” Raquelsantos explained.
Coupled with solar power, a home wind turbine can really save you money and help save the environment, at the same time, he said.
He said they have already installed panels in factories, industrial plants and farms, aside from residential and buildings.
Renewables the way to go
According to the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century, renewables make up the fastest-growing energy industry in the world and have the potential to meet half the world’s energy needs by 2050, in some places more than 80 percent.
Investment in renewables surged from $33 billion in 2004 to almost $150 billion in 2007, and the estimates coming in for the turbulent year 2008 are showing a less steep, but nevertheless a continued rise, the report said.
This resilience in the face of economic crisis is a consequence of the unchanged fundamental drivers of renewables growth, including climate change and energy insecurity, it said. Keeping that growth momentum going, however, requires ambitious, robust, climate and energy policies with long-term commitments and concrete targets.
BusinessMirror senior correspondent Imelda V. Abaño just returned from Bonn and Copenhagen, sites of the latest in the run-up talks on climate change. These activities are all gearing up for the December climate-change conference where countries hope to put in place a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
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