We are blessed to have the sun all year round. Even during the rainy season, the sun would be smiling on us up in the sky most of the time. Only when there is a typhon do we fail to see its existence above us.
Same thing with the wind. There are areas where it blows almost continuously or really strong at certain times of the year.
We also have plenty of water on our rivers and creeks. With its continuous flow, we should now have a lot of micro or mini-hydros operating everywhere providing electricity 24/7 all year round.
As this piece is being written, there is a whole day blackout. No electric power. Everything just grounded to a halt.
Yet we should have a lot of electricity even during maintenance periods. Big batteries can be used to store power during such times.
And with our supposed abundance of electricity sources, we should not be paying much for it.
So why the frequent blackouts and the high rates of the power that gives us light and drives everything in our homes, offices and factories?
Because we don’t have enough micro- and mini-hydros on our rivers and creeks. Same thing with windmills harnessing the force of the wind on our coastal areas, mountains and our plains.
Not many are also investing in solar farms to harvest the power of the sun that we have all year round.
The main reason for these is corruption and so much red tape. Some dedicated individuals risked all their savings to put up some of such sources of power but many of them just could not stomach what politicians are asking for as grease money before they could even start construction. What more if revenues are already flowing in?
Then there is the usual red tape that made sure we were in the muck of poverty since time immemorial. Things have not changed. Try putting up a mini-hydro, or a solar plant, or a windmill and government requirements would be endless and so expensive.
And even with the anti-red tape law, red tape remains a reality in our everyday lives. Government has no honest-to-goodness proactive measures or moves to really remove it. Not even an effort to examine with microscopic eye to analyze and reduce the steps and other requirements before one could start doing business in this country, especially to provide renewable sources of energy.
Is there hope? That is something the powers-that-be should be asking themselves every minute of the day. Until they realize the problems are them and their forever traditional ways of thinking and doing things, there is no hope. It is high time they learned the meaning of having a paradigm shift.**