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BY MAE SINGUAY
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BACOLOD City – Solar roofs that can produce at least 650 kilowatts (kW) of electricity will be installed at two Ceres bus facilities here.
Vallacar Transit, Inc., which operates the Ceres line of buses, has signed a solar power contract with UpGrade Energy Philippines (UGEP) on Tuesday at the Ceres compound in Barangay Mansilingan.
A 500-kW solar roof will be put up at the compound, while a 150-kW one will be installed at the Ceres North Terminal in Barangay Bata in January 2017. They are expected to be operational the following month.
Vallacar CEO Leo Rey Yanson and UGEP’s President Gao Pronove, who once served as a United Nations official working on climate change, Director Norman Jison, and Sales Director Rhonalyn Guerrero signed the contract.
The UGEP is a Filipino-Belgian joint venture offering renewable energy solutions, including solar and biomass. It has put up a 1-megawatt (MW) facility at Solaire Resorts and Casino and a 1.8-MW one at the CW Home Depot warehouse in Santa Rosa, Laguna.
A solar power source is best for companies with “high daytime (electricity) use,” Pronove said. Unlike solar farms, solar roofs do not breach agricultural lands, he added.
The solar roofs are expected to “significantly reduce” Vallacar’s electricity consumption and dependence to the local grid, Guerrero said.
She said their output will offset around 190,000 kilowatt-hour (kWh) a year at the North Terminal and around 650,000 kWh a year at the Mansilingan compound.
Meanwhile Rey Repollo, Vallacar’s vice president for external affairs, claimed the UGEP designed the solar roofs in a way that “all the power produced is consumed by the host facility, resulting in faster payback.”
He said the UGEP will also “insure, operate and maintain the roofs under an equipment lease program with no cash outlay on [the] part [of Vallacar].”/PN
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