Firm pushes ‘solar cooperatives’

Solar panel producer Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings is urging communities of consumers to form cooperatives that would generate electricity, saying such a business model may be key in helping eradicate poverty.

The company said it was in discussions with various communities to put up “solar cooperatives,” which could produce electricity at lower cost and greater reliability than existing power cooperatives.

Solar Philippines president Leandro Leviste said the solar cooperative might be integrated with irrigation and other initiatives to create jobs.

“We’ve received thousands of e-mails from Filipinos asking for Solar with Batteries in provinces with expensive electricity and regular brownouts,” Leviste said.

Leviste said Solar Philippines recently submitted proposals to power distributors on shifting to solar farms as their source of electricity instead of the current suppliers, which are commonly operators of coal-fired power plants.

He said they could put up farms with a capacity of 5,000 megawatts (MW) and offer electricity “for as low as P2.99 per kilowatt hour (kWh), the lowest rate of any new power plant” in the country.

Leviste said that if utilities would accept Solar’s proposal, the price of electricity could be reduced by 30 percent, allowing a typical household to lower its monthly bill by P1,000.

Solar Philippines’ showcase project involves setting up a 4-MW solar-battery farm in Paluan, Occidental Mindoro touted to become the world’s biggest island solar-battery micro-grid.