By EUGENE ADIONG
SAN CARLOS City — Sen. Loren Legarda called for more investments in renewable energy in the country.
“Renewable energy is the way to go,” said Legarda, who was present during Thursday’s inauguration of the San Carlos Solar Energy, Inc. solar farm here.
Investing in renewable energy is part of a long-term solution to the growing power needs of the country, she said.
She said this initiative of Bronzeoak Philippines, Inc. and ThomasLloyd Group should “set the pace for more domestic and foreign investments to come in.”
The solar farm, she said, created 3,000 jobs — directly and indirectly — and will need 300 workers for maintenance.
Aside from feeding the Visayas grid with 22 megawatts of clean energy, it will also sequester 17,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, she said.
She said the use of renewable energy is part of the global effort to avert and mitigate the effects of climate change.
The Philippines has a huge potential for renewable energy development, with studies showing it has more than 200,000 untapped possible renewable energy resources, said Legarda.
“[As] a nation facing the daunting impacts of climate change, we need to take action toward drastically reducing greenhouse gases and carbon emissions,” said the chair of the Senate committee on climate change.
The country has established a legal framework that provides for necessary policy mechanisms for the development of its renewable energy resources, said Legarda, coauthor and cosponsor of the Renewable Energy Act.
“We have one of the most comprehensive (renewable energy) laws in the world that provide the framework of legal and institutional conditions necessary for the private sector to move renewable energy technologies into the market,” she said.
Laws like the Philippine Biofuels Act and the Renewable Energy Act are already in place; it is only a matter of “operationalizing and implementing them,” she stressed.
The Philippine Biofuels Act mandates the blending of biodiesel and ethanol in locally distributed diesel and gasoline, while the Renewable Energy Act institutionalizes the use and development of renewable energy.
“It is about time we take a consistent and deliberate effort to develop our own energy resources so that we can guarantee a legacy of clean, reliable and affordable energy for our future generation,” Legarda said.
Meanwhile, Cong. Alfredo Abelardo Benitez of the 3rd District said the province may face a power crisis if the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines will not upgrade its submarine cables connecting Negros Island to Cebu and Iloilo over the next 10 years.
“Local officials should encourage more on-site power generation in Negros Occidental,” said Benitez, who was also present during the solar farm inauguration./PN
