PANGLAO, Bohol, August 7 (PIA) –Clean energy revolution in small amperage light rolls off from here and it is a wolf in sheep’s cloak.

An ordinary dirty energy kerosene lantern which otherwise would have given a warm flickering incandescent glow now gets a new light source: clean Light Emitting Diode (LED) powered by solar energy.

“Thanks to Liter of Light and MyShelter Foundation who taught us how to do it,” confesses Jane Heberly Bompat, Grade VI pupil at Lourdes Elementary School (LES) in Panglao.

Assembled by LES kids, the repackaged lantern would soon be among the innovations the Liter of Light and its 34 Bohol children ambassadors would be using to spread light into the country’s communities still darkened by energy poverty.

“How could we help 20 million Filipinos without access to light? Do we give them light from patented sources which is expensive and hard to repair or do we think of innovations?” asked Liter of Light and MyShelter founder  Ilac Diaz.

Asked how his mission came about, Diaz was more willing to share.

It all started with one bottle, one carpenter, one inspiration and an empty liter bottle of soda.

Diaz said they had to come up with a solution in providing light to help communities wiped out by Haiyan, and Filipino bayanihan was a good concept to start with.

Liter of Light filled the PET bottle with water and bleach and stuck it in house roofs to produce refracted illumination indoors.

But for Haiyan victims, “buying was an option but shipping cost would eat up about 70% of our budget, we need to come up with something unique not top down imported, patented and expensive , but bottom up and local so it can be fixed,” Diaz added.

“Why import when we could just overhaul what is there?” he pointed out citing the kerosene lamps which were given to communities after the disaster.

In these areas too, kerosene lamps caused other problems: they burned children and women and houses, he noted.

“In kerosene lamps, we thought of converting it to solar powered lamps using LED,” Diaz who presided over a workshop at the Asian Cooperation Dialog (ACD) in Panglao intoned.

“We want local materials, done by local skills and fixible so the community can build and rebuild or fix it again as we go,” he excitedly narrated his soon-to-be mainstreamed clean energy.

Operating on empowering people to do more to uplift them instead of doling out, Liter of Light saw that transforming a dirty energy into sun power is most sustainable.

“The country has this south-south orientation which provides us maximum exposure to the sun,” he commented on why solar of all low cost and renewable energy sources.

The lanterns they asked children to build is 1 ampere LED mounted on a printed circuit board and getting solar energy packed in a battery inserted inside the lamp.

At the ACD, 34 children: 17 boys and 17 girls patiently showed to the representatives of the 34 country energy bloc how to build and rebuild the solar lanterns.

The ACD gathered Asian energy leaders and think-tanks to share and exchange expertise and ideas about making energy sustainable and affordable to energy deprived areas.

This is transforming a dirty energy to a clean energy solution and the government  is keen in its support because solar energy is the right energy because it preserves our resources, Diaz summed. (rahc/PIA7/Bohol)

option for additional income

TAGBILARAN CITY, August 11 (PIA)–Then thought of only as a farm animal and meat source, the Philippine water buffalo now proves is also a source of extra income in high quality milk and cheese, says experts at the Philippine Carabao Center (PCC).

A potential source of additional income for farm families who have to sideline farm work to allow a birthing carabao the respite to nurture the young, carabao milk has been proven to be a good income source, according to PCC veterinarian Dr. Gondolino Bahinting.

To highlight on the viability of carabao as milk source, the PCC at the Ubay Stock Farm (USF) says other than giving off a calf, a mother carabao can also be a good source of high protein, low cholesterol, mineral and calcium rich milk that could be suitable for mozzarella.

Compared to other milk, a 200 milliliter glass of carabao milk contains about 9 grams of heat resistant protein.

“Because it doesnt break down easilly, the body tends to get more from it,” explains a dietician when asked about heat resistant proteins.

And carabao milk contains low cholesterol and is ideal milk for persons with diabetes, dyslipidermia, hypertension, kidney diseases, polycystic ovarian disease and obesity, PCC claimed.

Known to have high fat percentage and is thicker than other kinds of milk, the heavy carabao milk has been identified as good for healthy weight gain and is excellent for cheese and ice cream making, says PCC information officer Leniefe Libres.

In Bohol schools now, carabao milk supplemental feeding program supports the province’s goals of wiping malnutrition.

Besides, carabao milk is extremely rich in calcium and is a great source of minerals like potassium, magnessium and phosphorus which is great for building bone and bofy strength, Libres added to highlight its nutritional prowess.

“Experiments showed that carabao milk has very good stretching and melting characteristics that make it ideal for mozzarella,” PCC claimed.

“The native carabao however could only produce about 6 liters in two milking sessions a day compared to 12 liters from foreign breeds, but with a calf to add to the profit, it should be just okay,” a PCC carabao loan porgram beneficiary posed in comparison.

A farmer with a milking carabao however has to wean the calf early and induce the milking to harvest enough to feed the calf and process more milk.

With the provision of carabao milk as alternative, the PCC nears in its mission to make available locally produced affordable and high quality fresh dairy products while uplifting the socioeconomic status of dairy farmers as well ad improve nutrition and lives of Boholanos.

Along this line, the PCC has been tending a carabao ranch, a milking shed and has produced 200 liters of milk a day to prove milking  can be viable for farmers.

“We do not do this for profit. We are doing this for farmers to imbibe as livelihood,” Dr. Bahinting claimed as he explained to tourists at the PCC farm tour.

From its processed milk, PCC and its supervised Bohol Dairy Cooperative makes pasteurized fresh milk, chocomilk, mango flavored milk, yoghurt, banana loaves, milk cakes, torta, pastillas de leche, vinegar-based white cheese, caramilk ice cream and its nutri packaged milk bars. (rahc/PIA7/Bohol)

During a press conference at the BE Grand Hotel in Panglao, no less than DOE Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi timidly confirmed the plan after a  slip of the tongue when he exposed the plan to send in a liquified natural gas (LNG) floating power plant to Bohol.

The press conference of the First  East Asia Energy Forum which also had Japanese professor president of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia Hidetoshi Nishimura, Shigeru Kimura of ERIA, Energy Research Institute Network Chair and associate professor Romeo Pacudan,   Sec. Alfonso G. Cusi tackled the directions East Asia and the Philippines is taking in its energy development in response to the pressing industrialization needs of the times.

While the DOE admitted its direction towards an establishment of an energy source that is  attainable in the shortest term to keep up to the countrys development pace, the Philippine direction towards clean coal became apparent.

“The Philippine direction is building up more coal fired plants, which should comprise 50% of the 80% energy supplied by conventional energy,” he said.

The rest of the 20% should be from  renewables.

The downside for renewables however is that these are dependent on the times.

When the sun is out for example, less energy is gathered or hydropower is dependent on the water supply, energy sources said.

The move for coal considers that the Philippines has coal while it is also available from Indonesia, Australia and Russia, its import price affected by economics of supply and demand, Sec. Cusi who led the host nation in the Asian Cooperation Dialog in Panglao.

As to the environmental concerns of coal, the energy bigwig was quick to the follow-through: 50% is from green-coal technology, he stressed.

“Technology has done great lengths to reduce coal carbon emissions,” the secretary said even as he assured that the government is also looking at socio economic as well as the ecological impacts of coal.

But with Malampaya in the Philippines producing natural gas, the DOE is eyeing these as source of back up power for Bohol.

This is also considering that the only time Bohol could have a redundant power supply system is when the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines completes its Cebu-Bohol interconnection by 2020.

An earthquake that shut down the geothermal plants in Leyte last July disrupted Bohols power supply blanketing the island in darkness for a few nights.

A few landbased plants later supplied 20 megawatts of the 69 megawatts the entire island needed.

Weeks later, NGCP tapped Bohol to the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid which supplied some of its power requirements.

Bohol officials who have yet to accept bids for more landbased power, has arranged for a diesel power barge to complement the supply, but none has arrived yet.

The DOE did not also say when the clean barge is coming and from where would this come from. (rahc/PIA7/Bohol)