Thanks to the support of the U.S. Embassy Manila’s United States Agency for International Development (USAID), residents of Sitio Green Island in Roxas, Palawan, will now enjoy reliable and sustainable electricity using hybrid renewable energy.

Sitio Green Island is categorized as a “missionary area,” or an area that is not connected to the main electricity grid. Missionary areas are often powered by small generator sets run by diesel or bunker fuel which is costly and unreliable. Missionary areas are often so remote that it is hard to establish electric power systems.

Through USAID’s Climate Change and Clean Energy (CEnergy) Project, however, USAID helped build a 25.5kW Hybrid Renewable Energy (RE) Power System on the island. The system is composed of a biomass gasifier which uses plant-derived energy, along with solar panels and wind turbines.

USAID’s Joseph Foltz, Acting Director for Environment, Energy, and Climate Change Office, joined Secretary Mary Ann Lucille Sering, Undersecretary Loreta G. Ayson of the Department of Energy; Governor Jose Alvarez of Palawan, Mayor Angela Sabando of Roxas, Palawan, and Executive Director Laurence Padilla of the Palawan Center for Appropriate Rural Technology (PCART) for the inauguration ceremony on February 7.

The renewable energy system was initiated in support of the Philippine Government’s Energy Reform Agenda, Energy Access for More, which aims to provide electricity for Filipinos from all parts of the country.

USAID Philippines Mission Director Gloria D. Steele said in a message: “We hope this pioneering initiative will be replicated so that more communities especially in remote areas in the country can have access to electricity and help contribute to their economic development.”

This project is implemented in partnership with the Local Government of Roxas and the Palawan Center for Appropriate Rural Technology, which will eventually own and operate the Hybrid RE Power Station. The pilot project will result in the provision of electricity to over 50 households in Green Island’s Zone IV, the area furthest from the diesel-generator set. As part of the sustainability plan, the project includes an ice-flake machine maker to help preserve the catch of fisherfolk, and a reverse-osmosis machine as a source of potable water for the residents of Green Island.

The establishment of the Hybrid RE Power System was made possible through a grant awarded to Solutions Using Renewable Energy, Inc. (SURE) under the USAID-CEnergy Grants Program. The Green Island project is one of the six grants of USAID’s CEnergy Project which promotes renewable energy for utilization in the power and transport sectors.