The Romblon Electric Cooperative Inc. (Romelco) has installed a 200-kilowatt (kW) solar photovoltaic power system in four barangays. The facility is worth P12 million.
This is part of its project Grid-Tied Solar Roof Mounted Project, which aims to provide clean, sustainable, and reliable energy to its consumers, according to a report.
The solar project is also part of Romelco’s commitment to generate 90 percent of its electricity from renewable energy (RE) sources.
The barangays benefitting from this project are; Barangays Lunas, Macalas, Mapula, and Ilauran in Romblon. Each with a capacity of 50 kW.
“This is more efficient than a single big installation. Since this is distributed, the installation is fast. It only took us less than a week to set up the panels for each rooftop,” said Romelco General Manager Rene Fajilagutan.
“This is our test-bed for the bigger distributed solar power plant. This year, our target installation is a 2-megawatt solar energy system,” he added.
The solar project was done through a partnership with the local governments of Romblon.
Fajilagutan said Romelco will pay lease to the four barangays for the use of rooftop spaces for a period of 20 years.
Its other projects include 900-kW wind turbines on the hills of Barangays Agnay, Bagacay, and Lonos; 1,350-kW mini hydro power plant in Cantingas, San Fernando, Sibuyan Island; 30-kW solar diesel hybrid generation system in Cobrador Island; and 18-kW biomass gasifier in Barangay Alad, Romblon.
Meanwhile, the Office of Renewable Energy Development (ORED) of the National Electrification Administration’s (NEA) said more electric cooperatives are delving into more renewable energy projects.
NEA will subsidize four ECS on the development of its hybrid mini-grid system using renewable energy and battery systems.
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is currently funding a separate feasibility study on hybridization of existing diesel power plants with renewable energy and battery systems for three ECs in Eastern Visayas.
A total of 10 ECs are eyeing to develop microgrid projects in their respective areas. However, there are still no funding for these planned projects.
