PGMA braves rains, floods to launch energy saving campaign

Braving heavy rains and knee-deep floods, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo went on with her scheduled engagement at the Don Bosco Youth Center in Tondo this morning and distributed compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) to poor households as part of the government’s nationwide “Switch to CFL” campaign.

With only a raincoat shielding her from the downpour, the President handed out free CFL lamps at the center located at North Harbor in exchange for the residents’ incandescent bulbs and Meralco electric bill.

Assisting the President in the event marking the start of the nationwide campaign to save energy and electricity were Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes and Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim.

Secretary Reyes said the Switch to CFL program – the first of its kind in Asia – is in line with the administration’s Philippine Energy Efficiency Project (PEEP) aimed to save on fuel costs and help mitigate climate change.

He revealed that some 13 million CFLs is set to distribute nationwide in the coming months, and part of a larger drive is to make the Philippines incandescent bulb-free by next year..

“This campaign will not only save families money. It will also save the country P5 billion US $100 million in fuel costs each year or around P50 billion or US $1 billion over the coming decade,” Reyes said in his project briefing.

He said the program aims to reduce national carbon emissions by 300,000 tons a year, allowing the country to receive at least 200,000 tons of certified emission reduction (carbon market) credits annually.

Xianbin Yao, director general of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Regional Sustainable Development Department, noted that the Switch to CFL project shows how the Filipino people, and the world, can benefit from this kind of investment.

“This is the first country in Asia to access carbon credits from a program like this,” Yao said adding that the PEEP program of the administration covers seven projects, including CFL replacement program.

Eighteen non-governmental organizations and church groups have vowed to support the program and be part of the solution to the sudden change in climate and energy challenges.
this is a online press release from the Philippine Government

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Look What's Next Door: A Carbon Neutral House

This house only comes in green.

The first newly constructed, carbon neutral house on the East Coast is opening its doors to the public in October. The Green House, as it’s been named, uses approximately 70 to 80 percent less energy per square foot than a comparable new house.

The house, located in McLean, Va., was built to show how far green technology has come. A few of the elements that help make the 4,000 square-foot structure carbon neutral include a geothermal system for heating and cooling, a solar hot- water system, solar panels and wind turbines to generate on-site electricity, LED lighting, low-flow water fixtures as well as a rain-water capture system, structural insulated panel construction and a green roof system.
Look at the photos of the house here, read the complete article and watch a video at the original posting site http://www.cnbc.com/id/33003810/

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Solar Power, Without All Those Panels

THE main way for homes to harness solar power today is through bulky panels added to the rooftop or mounted on the ground.

But companies are now offering alternatives to these fixed installations, in the less conspicuous form of shingles, tiles and other building materials that have photovoltaic cells sealed within them.

“The new materials are part of the building itself, not an addition, and they are taking photovoltaics to the next level — an aesthetic one,” said Alfonso Velosa III, a research director at Gartner and co-author of a coming report on the market for the new field, called building-integrated photovoltaics.

Companies are creating solar tiles and shingles in colors and shapes that fit in, for example, with the terra cotta tile roofing popular in the Southwest, or with the gray shingles of coastal saltbox cottages.

SRS Energy of Philadelphia is making curved solar roofing tiles designed to blend in with Southern California’s traditional clay tiles, said Martin R. Low, the chief executive of SRS. A solar tile system that met half the power needs of a typical California home would cost roughly $20,000 to install after rebates, he estimated, or about 10 to 20 percent more than solar panels providing comparable power.

U.S. Tile of Corona, Calif., a maker of clay tiles, will be selling SRS’s Solé Power Tiles, initially in California, and then in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and other states, said Steve Gast, the company’s president. It will be taking orders perhaps as early as November for shipment in January, he said. SRS Energy buys the photovoltaic cells that cover its roofing from United Solar Ovonic, a maker of flexible solar modules that is based in Rochester Hills, Mich. SRS bonds the silicon cells to the curved Solé tiles, which are made of the same basic material as car bumpers, said J. D. Albert, director of engineering at SRS.

The cells have been installed at several demonstration sites, including a home in Bermuda Dunes, Calif. Rather than creating an entire new roof with the solar tiles, the homeowner, Bill Thomas, a roofing contractor, chose to insert them in his existing roof, replacing about 300 square feet of terra cotta tiles; the job took about four hours, he said.

The solar insert in the roof will generate about 2,400 kilowatt hours of electricity a year, enough to cover a quarter to a third of a typical electric bill, Mr. Albert of SRS said. Read the original complete article here. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/business/27novel.html?hpw

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