Philippines

The Philippines, as an archipelago with abundant sunshine, is an ideal location to benefit from solar energy to make renewable power available to the country's citizens... Show More + who live across its many islands. With an educated, low-cost workforce, it is also an ideal location to manufacture the equipment needed to make the solar cells and modules needed to capture solar energy. One leading player in the solar industry, U.S. based Sun Power Corporation, was attracted to this strong combination of assets as it looked to expand production of its high-efficiency solar cells. International Finance Corporation (IFC) is supporting the company's two solar cell and module fabrication facilities outside of Manila through a $75 million loan. At the end of 2009, Sun Power's Philippine operations employed 4,390 people. Show Less -

Electric Cooperatives (ECs) in the Philippines are generally undercapitalized, and their operational performance is poor. As a result, the supply of electricity in rural... Show More + areas is unstable, with frequent outages and fluctuating voltages. International Finance Corporation (IFC) Philippines advisory services found that a principal reason was the ECs' lack of sound capital expenditure (capex) plans, and introduced a new product to address the issue. The results from the pilot training of six ECs in post-conflict areas of Mindanao will be replicated in all ECs in the country and ultimately bring an estimated $274 million worth of investments in capex and power-generation, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 600,000 metric tons per year starting in 2015. To get to this point, IFC learned lessons about the importance of building strong relationships to 'sell' ownership of the program to clients and pivotal stakeholders and ensure program sustainability through local consultants and partner organizations. Show Less -

International Finance Corporation (IFC) is helping to introduce private sector efficiency in power generation in off-grid areas covered by the small power utilities... Show More + group, which is already yielding significant social, economic, and environmental benefits. IFC's third transaction in rural power in the Philippines is located at Basilan Island. Under a new power supply agreement with the Coastal Power Development Corporation, 185,000 people currently without electricity in the Mindanao region will gain access to electricity for the first time. The Coastal Power Development Corporation will supply 11.8 MW at a cost of PHP 11 per kilowatt-hour. The agreement was signed in August 2008. Show Less -

From December 2006 to April 2007, the Global Environment Facility (GEF) evaluation office carried out an evaluation of GEF support to the Philippines. This was the second... Show More + in an ongoing series of evaluations using a country as the unit of analysis. The Philippines was selected because it has been one of the largest country recipients of GEF support, it will receive country resource allocation, framework allocations in both climate change and biodiversity, its GEF small grants programmer is one of the longest running such country programs in existence, and the environment sector is an essential part of its national sustainable development agenda. With GEF support, the Philippines have developed a national action plan to reduce and eliminate releases of persistent organic pollutants and participate in the GEF-supported partnerships in environmental management for the seas of East Asia. GEF support to the Philippines has produced a range of global environmental benefits. Show Less -

Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company (CEPALCO), the third largest electric distribution utility in the Philippines, is supplying energy through a Global Environment... Show More + Facility (GEF) solar photovoltaic (PV) project. This groundbreaking project combines hydro- and photovoltaic-based power for homes, schools, hospitals, offices, and other users. This paper discusses: 1) the project - the CEPALCO project is a first of its kind as the largest grid-connected PV installation in the developing world; 2) the benefits - the PV plant is expected to generate more than a million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity annually; 3) innovative financing - the project is innovative not only in its design but in its financial structure; 4) potential for replication - the GEF hopes the CEPALCO project will spur similar projects throughout the world. Show Less -