THE Mandaue City Government is mulling the use of solar panels in lighting up the city streets, government offices and school buildings.
Mandaue Mayor Jonas Cortes said that the city is planning to coordinate with the Sun Energy Developers Asia Inc. (SEDAI), which demonstrated how to use solar panels yesterday at the Parkmall in Mandaue.
The Department of Energy (DOE) has tied up with local companies in promoting the use of solar energy in the country.
SEDAI chose Mandaue as its pilot area in introducing the use of renewable energy.
Cortes said that the City Government will ask SEDAI to install solar panels in a school or government-owned building as a test case.
The City will then comparatively study the advantages and disadvantages of using solar panels as opposed to non-renewable power from electric companies.
Quality
“I'm very happy with the entry of this company with high- quality products because many have proposed. Unfortunately, the quality (is questionable),” Cortes said.
The mayor believes that solar panels are useful especially during blackouts.
SEDAI has teamed with Clean Energy Advisor, Mobile Grid and Symtech Solar in providing high-quality solar panels.
SEDAI trained stakeholders from the different provinces on the effective use of solar panels yesterday.
Jay Yuvallos, chief executive officer of SEDAI, said they also have solar residential kits for household use, aside from the solar panel kit for business establishments.
Sustainable
According to the company's vision, it aims “to address the growing Philippine and Asian energy problem with feasible and sustainable solutions that can provide accessible energy independence for generations to come.”
Yuvallos said that the panels can produce power for 25 to 30 years.
He said that SEDAI chose Mandaue as its pilot area because the mayor is passionate about renewable energy.
Jude Pasasadaba, chief technical and marketing officer of SEDAI, said that one panel can produce 250 watts of power.
In Cebu, DOE teamed up with eletric cooperatives to provide electricty to remote villages using solar energy.
“It’s more economical to have a stand-alone solar home system if one lives in a remote area,” Aginaldo Briones of the DOE-Visayas field office told Sun.Star Cebu last year.
DOE’s Electric Power Industry Management Bureau implemented the Solar Home System under the Rural Power Project between 2011 and 2013.
Over 600 households from islets in Bantayan Island and Gibitngil Island in Medellin benefited from the project.