Winds of Change: Exploring Renewable Energy and Community Growth in Guimaras
by Charles Jason Diaz Editor’s Note: Charles is currently a Senior Data Analyst with the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities. Visiting the San Lorenzo Wind Farm in Guimaras, Philippines, was an eye-opening experience on the world of renewable energy and its intersection with community development. On an island known for its beaches and sweet mangoes, the wind farm stood out as a symbol of innovation, harnessing the power of nature to provide electricity in the area. The sheer scale of the wind farm was breathtaking: seeing the rows of turbines stretching across kilometers of rolling hills, [...]
‘PHL needs distributed energy infra built on ample supply of renewables’ [Washington Post]
In the Washington Post story entitled "Clean-energy push puts abandoned Philippine nuclear plant back in spotlight" by Rebecca Tan and Jhesset Enano, published on January 25, 2023, Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) energy transition advisor Alberto Dalusung III said: "It is costly to ensure that nuclear plants are safely operated in the Philippines, which, like Japan, is in a notoriously active seismic zone called the Ring of Fire. And when nuclear plants go offline, say because of a typhoon, the energy grid can be left crippled, causing brownouts. Instead of a few large power plants, the Philippines needs [...]
PHL urged to decentralize power generation with more solar plants [BusinessWorld]
THE Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) said the Philippines needs to move towards more “distributed” power generation, which would involve the construction of more solar generation facilities while abandoning the current model of centralized baseload power, currently dominated by coal-fired plants. In an e-mail interview on Sept. 9, Pedro H. Maniego, senior policy advisor of ICSC, a climate and energy policy group, said that the dependence on coal renders the Philippines vulnerable to volatile international energy prices, and put forward solar as an alternative.
Philippines, ASEAN must tap solar, wind to meet rising electricity demand — report
by Jhesset O. Enano | July 7, 2022 | Published by GMA News | READ THE STORY HERE Countries in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, must ramp up solar and wind capacities to meet the rising demand for electricity and avert more carbon emissions from the power sector, according to a new report. Despite its huge potential for renewable energy sources, Southeast Asia continues to lag behind in the energy transition, analysts said in a report released Thursday by climate and energy think tank Ember. Southeast Asia is one of the world’s fastest growing regions in terms of economic growth [...]
NGO says RE plants prone to fewer outages than coal-fired facilities
by Angelica Y. Yang | October 14, 2021 | Published by BusinessWorld | READ THE STORY HERE Non-government organization (NGO) Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) said Thursday that renewable energy (RE) facilities are more reliable than coal-run plants, citing data on outages from the wholesale electricity spot market. In a virtual briefing, ICSC Energy Transition Advisor Alberto R. Dalusung III said solar, biomass and wind plants have historically registered fewer outage days compared to coal plants. The claim was based on an analysis of spot market data collected between 2017 and mid-June 2021, which tallied 41 outage days a [...]