(photo source: istockphoto)
First of all, I would like to greet you and all our townmates a happy fiesta, an annual town celebration which brings back a lot of childhood memories.
Going back to my childhood days in OMPSA, I saw a young and bright student who vowed to himself that never again will he let the future generations of his beloved town suffer the same experience he had while studying under a dimly-lit room and literally burning his eyebrows every time his head accidentally touches the gas lamp (made out of empty coffee jar), which provided the much needed light. To pursue his dreams, he studied Electrical Engineering in college hoping that someday after gaining some expertise in his chosen field, he would be able to alleviate if not totally eliminate the problem of having no electricity or lack thereof, that currently besieged our town and the whole province of Marinduque.
That young and bright student is now a successful and experienced Electrical Engineer; ten years away from his retirement is no other than yours truly, Engr. Victor Perlas Vizarra, at your service. I could not believe that we still have the same power and energy problems thirty-nine years ago, after I left our town to pursue my dreams and seek for greener pastures in a far away land, they called the land of milk and honey. I could not wait for another ten years, for me to be able to give back to my beloved town of Torrijos. I believe the time has finally come for me to get out of the sidelines and take the necessary actions to help your good office and with all honest intentions tackle the immense task of preventing brown-outs.
Why don’t we harness the power of the sun and wind (which are bountiful in our area) to provide us with the much needed source of electrical energy? If given the opportunity, I propose the following solutions to our power and energy problems which consist of four stages:
I. Installation of a prototype solar panel
A) In public buildings such as hospitals, puericulture centers, municipal hall, etc.
B) Funding of this project may come from non-profit organizations and private citizens or this could be a joint venture between the local government and private citizens.
II. Providing a classroom or some sort of building structure for solar panel manufacturing
A) Training our out-of-school youth and jobless members of our community learn the basic skills of soldering and practical electricity.
B) Once they become knowledgeable and proficient, they will provide the needed manpower to assemble the solar panels that we need. In return we are not only giving them jobs but quite literally, a bright future.
C) This portion could be tied-up to the local government’s livelihood program.
III. Installation of solar panels on rooftops or ground structures of private residences
A) Those more fortunate and well to do members of our community can do this on their own by buying directly from our self-manufactured solar panels or get their panels from a third party vendor.
B) This privately installed solar panels shall be tied-up to the local electrical grid, so that in cases of excess power generated by the solar panels, they will be able to supply power back to the grid which will enable them to sustain the diesel generators used to supply power to the less fortunate members of our community.
C) The government shall provide subsidies to private homeowners in terms of credits earned by supplying excess power to the local grid to entice the private sector to participate in these efforts. This would be subjected to your discretion.
IV. Rural electrification using both solar panels and wind turbines
A) Solar power and wind power are an ideal combination of providing non-conventional or renewable forms of energy sources. The solar panels work best in day time and wind turbines will provide the much needed boost at night time to charge the storage batteries that we need to store the energy generated by both solar and wind power.
B) Wind turbines are noisy and require strategic positioning that’s why I do not recommend them for installation in the town proper. They should be installed in individual homes in the rural areas.
For details of my proposals, please feel free to contact me anytime. To start with, I would like to request your good office to send me an electrical plan of your public hospital complete with power and lighting loads so I can start my feasibility studies. You can give the plans to Architect Glee Rosas who will be there during the town fiesta or send the plans directly to my home address above. It would be great if you can also include the perspective drawing of the hospital.
I hope you agree with my proposed approach to providing solutions to our power and energy problems instead of building whole arrays of solar power plants and fields of wind turbines which would require a lot of financial funding; I believe we could not afford to provide. My approach to solving our problem is not complex at all. All we need is active participation from each member of the community. If we work hand-in-hand, we will accomplish great things even beyond our wildest imaginations.
Thank you for your precious time and once again, Happy Fiesta to ALL…Mabuhay tayong lahat!
Sincerely,
Engr. Victor Vizarra
Note: I wrote this letter last year to a town official in our beloved province. Unfortunately, I did not get any response at all. I will not stop until my vision of rural electrification - that is for every household, even the poorest of the poor in remote areas shall be provided with power and lighting. I know this is a big task and a real challenge, that's why I'm asking for every one's help and cooperation. We need to start somewhere, and I'm glad some of you are already doing it, while others are interested and willing to do it. Now, for those of you who are interested in my proposals, you can contact me at engr.vizarra@yahoo.com.
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