USAID lights up Philippine PV project

On June 11, the Alliance for Mindanao Off-Grid Renewable Energy (AMORE) project celebrated a lights-on ceremony for the PV systems it has installed on Pababag Island of the Philippine island group Tawi-Tawi.    

© USAID/Philippines Turning on the juice: Vincent Perez, the Philippine energy secretary (at the far right) turns on an energization map to light up the communities benefiting from USAID's off-grid PV project.

The US ambassador to the Philippines Francis Ricciardone and Vincent Perez, the Philippine secretary of energy, checked up on the project, switching on the electricity in several villages on the island. 

AMORE is a PV-powered rural electrification project run by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Philippines (see PI 3/2003, p. 34). When completed, it should electrify 160 barangays, which is the Philippine word for small village; a barangay consists of about 30 households. To date, AMORE has electrified 10 barangays on Tawi-Tawi and 25 barangays on the Basilan province of the Philippines. Since each household receives a 300 W installation (using Shell modules), total installed capacity is around 315 kW. The installations run lights, a radio, or DC fan, says AMORE's Noemi Bautista. About 1,600 households (or just over 50 more barangays) will receive PV systems by the end of September, she says. The entire AMORE project is worth $7.9 million, says another source, who asked not to be named.
 

Bruce Carnevale
© PHOTON International, August 2003