RENEWABLE ENERGY       RE  ACADEMY

The subject "Renewable Energy for Sustainable Development (Introduction to Renewable Energy)" is a first online course on Energy System and Renewable Energy to be offered in the Philippines outside of a school’s program. The course shares the links and relevance of the energy system, particularly the use of renewable energy in addressing climate change and achieving sustainable development. It tackles the fundamentals of energy, power system, and renewable energy technologies. Topics of relevance to the RE landscape in the Philippines are also discussed including the intricacy and variations of RE technologies, energy conversion and storage, power system operation and emerging technologies. Learners are also introduced in this course to the application of RE in economics, entrepreneurship, public governance and social development.

Through this course, learners can appreciate the gaps in RE knowledge and expertise in their respective areas or workplaces and social context, and help them devise a plan on how they may bridge these gaps. Only few universities in the country are offering the subject “Introduction to Renewable Energy” in undergraduate course – usually as an elective subject.

This course consisting of 27 modules may be considered equivalent to a semester’s or a 3-unit worth of academic study, albeit experiments,  laboratory and site visits. This can be completed in 10 weeks, with 8 to 10 hours recommended learning time per week. There will be two live online sessions for the duration of the course.

Materials in this online course include recorded lectures, power point presentations or visual materials, and list of recommended readings.

Lastly, this course is a pre-requisite to the next subjects/ courses in RE Academy.

COURSE TOPICS

• Module 1: Introduction to Renewable Energy System (5 topics)

• Module 2: Renewable Energy System 1 (Mechanical Generation of Renewable Energy)  (6 topics)

• Module 3: Renewable Energy System 2 (Thermal Generation of Renewable Energy)  (5 topics)

• Module 4: Integration of Renewable Energy into the Power System (Integration of Renewable Energy into the power system) (5 topics)

• Module 5: Renewable Energy in the Context of Management and Leadership (5 topics)

REdiscover & REexplore is a two-day learning session to be delivered on September 24 and October 1, 2022 for engineering students to  acquire a basic understanding of key concepts and framework on renewable energy as they aspire to contribute in the realization of sustainable and innovative ways to addressing energy access, social and economic development, and climate resiliency in the country.

The training session aims to:

• Broaden the students’ appreciation of renewable energy including its role in social and economic development, climate mitigation, and community empowerment.

• Identify the different types of renewable energy and understand the processes of harnessing them.

• Explore the sustainability of renewable energy as we advance in technology

• Gain understanding of RE technologies that can contribute in workplace and community innovation.

Electric cooperatives play a significant role in providing electricity to millions of households in the country especially in remote areas. Currently, 121 electric cooperatives have electrified over 14 million consumers across the country – 46.93%of these are in Luzon, 26.75% in Visayas, and 26.32% in Mindanao based on 2020 data of NEA.

However, the ECs are faced with many challenges in meeting their mandate. Among their predicaments are the constant weather disturbances that usually cause damages to power facilities including power lines, soaring prices of fossil fuels like diesel and coal, and the requirement to source electricity from renewable energy as mandated by the Renewable Energy Law and amid the global shift to clean and renewable energy to address climate change.

On top of these is the threat to their franchises as most of the ECs will need to secure their franchise renewal from the Congress in the next 3 years.

In the midst of all these, the electric cooperatives have to keep abreast with the policies and trends in the electricity industry, particularly in securing sustainable energy including the needed systems to generate and deliver them efficiently to consumers. A continuing capacity-building is deemed needed to ensure that the EC mission is realized, and be able to contribute in efforts to address energy, economic, and climate challenges.

About the Training

The Center for Empowerment, iNnovation and Training on Renewable Energy (CentRE), in cooperation with Philippine Rural Electric Cooperative Association (PHILRECA) and the Association of Isolated Electric Cooperatives are among the organizations that have embarked on a series of capacity building activities to facilitate and contribute in upskilling the stakeholders in the ongoing energy transition.

On 11 October 2022, through the collaboration of these organizations, a whole day training on urgent or critical renewable energy policies and programs, and addressing technical and financial requirements to realize renewable energy projects will be conducted.

This training is part of the continuing learning sessions of and for electric cooperatives to be able to adapt or upgrade amid the ongoing energy sector transformation – renewable energy as the future. This recognizes the need to continue to be abreast with the developments in energy or RE policies and program, as well as with the application of new technologies, finance or business models, and partnerships which are necessary in the path to ensuring more efficient, sustainable, inclusive and climate-resilient energy service provision.

This special offering is also part of the activities of the Renewable Energy Academy (RE Academy) of the CentRE in partnership with its academic and industry partners. This is the first of a series of trainings to be conducted by the CentRE for industry players especially the electric cooperatives.

 Aims

The training aims to broaden the technical and financial know-how of electric cooperatives that would help in the development and implementation of renewable energy projects and in complying with the government’s policies v.v. renewable energy.

Topics

Among the topics to be covered are the new RE mechanisms particularly the Green Energy Option Program/Green Energy Auction Program, understanding the distributed energy/microgrid systems mechanics and impacts on electric cooperatives, building financial models. Program details to follow.

Mode of delivery and target participants

This training to be delivered face-to-face or in-person is open to 100 participants. It caters to general managers, and technical, finance and corporate planning managers of electric cooperatives in the country. 

Dr.Ginno Andres (Luzon), Polytechnic University of the Philippines

Engr.Jeriel Militar (Visayas), Central Philippine University

Dr. Nelson Enano, Jr (Mindanao), Ateneo de Davao University-Center for Renewable Energy and Appropriate Technologies

Dr. Menandro Berana, University of the Philippines, Diliman