'Solar farms' to be rolled out in CARP areas

The Philippine government and a Dutch solar power company have teamed up to establish a solar farm in rural areas that could provide power even to households in urban centers.

 

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) said beneficiaries of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP) can lease out part of their land to Sunconnex Capital BV, a company based in The Netherlands that has partnered with Filipino businessmen, for solar farming.

 

DAR Sec Gil de los Reyes said the company is targeting to put up 50 solar farms that could produce 5-10 megawatts each.

 

“This is another opportunity for our agrarian reform beneficiaries to earn extra income by way of leasing out portions of their farm for the setting up of solar-powered plants with a generating capacity of 5-10 mw each,” he said.

 

DAR and Sunconnex Solar Powered Agri-Rural Communities (SC-Sparc) signed a memorandum of agreement yesterday.

 

Under the MOA, Sparc will enter into a long-term lease contract with ARBs for the use of the land over a period of 20 years. The rental will be paid directly to the communities, with the farmers’ cooperative getting a small percentage of the lease cost.

 

National Convergence Initiative chief Marriz Agbon hailed the project, saying it could not come at a better time. He noted that the government is pushing for more renewable energy initiatives to be included in the country’s energy mix in light of the power shortage in Mindanao.

 

De los Reyes said the Sparc program would not just benefit the farmer-beneficiaries but the country as well in the form of clean energy from solar power.

 

Officials said about 50 sites have been identified by the company, which will put up solar PV panels and storage facility in the chosen area. The power generated by the solar farm will be feed into the national grid. As such, it will be included in the electricity mix that is transmitted to Filipino households.

 

Lawyer Edward ALbert Eviota, SPARC Secretary noted that the Philippines has so much potential for solar energy because of the abundant sunlight. Under the company’s long-term plan, SPARC eyes to generate between 250-500 mw of solar power from its farms.

 

DAR Undersecretary Jerry PActuran said farmlands of the CARP will be prioritized for the program. The company could also consider non-ARB areas, depending on the results of technical studies.

 

DAR stressed that the sites to be made available to the company would not affect food production in the ARB areas. TO qualify as a site for the solar farms, Pacturan said the area should have a minimum of five hectares of open space. It should generally be flat, unproductive, and non-irrigated.

 

 It should also be not more than 5 km from the nearest electrical substation with 69 kilovolt transmission line.

 

Eviota said the company is starting to roll out its solar farm even without the feed-in-tariffs.  He noted that the Energy Regulatory Board has yet to approve the rates, which aims to encourage renewable energy investors in the Philippines. Environment groups like Greenpeace and Kalikasan-PNE lamented that there is a strong coal lobby against FIT.

 

The FIT mechanism has been on the table for three years. Under the proposed scheme, renewable energy producers are guaranteed returns on their investment through long-term contracts and price certainty in the form of a fixed cost rate (the FIT) to be levied on electricity consumers.

 

Distribution utilities would be required to buy electricity generated from renewable energy sources at prices that are determined as a percentage of the prevailing retail price of electricity. The government would set a fixed rate that consumers would pay for the power generated by renewable energy generators over a set period.

 

A FIT system for electricity produced from renewable energy sources is mandated in the Renewable Energy Act of 2008. The ERC, in consultation with the National Renewable Energy Board, was supposed to formulate and promulgate the rules for a FIT system in 2009.

 

The proposed feed-in-tariff rates are P7 per kilowatt hour (kWh) for biomass, P17.65 per kWh for ocean technology, P17.95 per kWh for solar power, P6.15 per kWh for run-of-river hydropower and P10.37 per kWh for wind power. The rates are estimated to add roughly P0.12 per kWh to consumers’ electricity bills. — TJD, GMA News