1.4.10 The Philippines

The Government of the Netherlands has approved a grant of P250 million ($4.9 million) for the Solar Home System Distribution Project of the Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC). PNOC president Thelmo Y. Cunanan said the Philippine government, through PNOC, will receive 5.591 million euros, equivalent to P250 million, for the installation of 15,100 solar home systems in 300 unelectrified barangays in Regions 1 to 6 and the Cordillera Autonomous Region (CAR). The total project cost is understood to be P504 million ($10 million).

The project will be implemented by PNOC, in coordination with the Department of Energy, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) and Shell Renewables Philippines Corp. (SPRC). The community-based project will provide credit programs for financing through local representatives. The project also includes a service agreement between SRPC and PNOC, and a battery collection and recycling agreement between PNOC and Philippine Recycler's Inc. (PRI).

1.4.11 South Africa

South Africa is to provide electricity to at least 30,000 households in rural areas over the next two to five years, as the result of a German government grant agreed in Pretoria in May 2002. South African Minerals and Energy Director-General Sandile Nogxina and Hanns-Peter Neuhoff, senior vice president of Kreditanstalt fur Wiederafbau (KfW), the German development bank, signed the agreement.

The German government, through KfW, will provide 15.8 million euros ($14.4 million) to South Africa to develop non-grid electrification in the form of solar home systems. Households, schools and clinics in the Eastern Cape Province and North West Province will benefit from the program.

1.4.12 Spain

The national PV support program, launched in Aug 2001, was oversubscribed four times in its call for proposals late in 2001. Available funding was 6 million euros ($5.2M). 1600 project requests were received, equivalent to 9 MW, from 94 companies. Support was offered to 394 projects from 25 firms totaling 2.3 MW. The next tender was due for issue in March with a budget of 10.8 million euros ($9.3M).

1.4.13 Sri Lanka

The World Bank's Renewable Energy for Rural Economic Development Project will support provision of electricity to rural Sri Lanka through a credit program for:

(a) developing and financing private sector sponsored grid-connected hydro, wind energy and biomass electricity projects; and

(b) developing and financing off-grid, community hydro and biomass mini-grid projects and solar home systems and other solar energy applications in rural areas through private companies, non-government organizations and micro-finance institutions.

The project will provide refinance, grant, and technical assistance support to seek to solidify the existing middle-range solar home system market and expand service to other applications such as:

(a) smaller systems accessible to a poorer market segment,

(b) community applications for health clinics, schools, street lighting, etc., and

(c) commercial systems for water pumping, telecommunications, and other applications.

The indicative targets of 80,000 household systems and 5,000 community/commercial systems will be confirmed during project preparation. The project comes before the Review Board on Jun 20, 2002. The five-year project will involve the installations at a value of some $20 million starting in 2002. The micro-finance model will call for local product supply. Since this is a continuation of the current 20,000 solar home system project, a product supplier network is already established.

1.4.14 Thailand

Draft legislation has been introduced that will allow electricity customers to sell any excess electricity to the state authority (net metering).

"Mini Small-Power Producers" (mini-SPPs) will include all household consumers, as well as farms using renewable energy sources that generate not more than 1MW of electricity. Their electricity bills would subsequently be reduced with credits based on the amount of energy they produce. Any excess electricity could be sold to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) at approximately 1.30 baht per unit.

The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) is working closely with small island states in the area to find alternative and renewable energy sources for them. The United National Development Program (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEP) have sponsored the Pacific Islands Renewable Energy project, or PIREP, at a cost of $811,000.

1.4.15 USA

The California Power Authority (CPA) is inviting manufacturers to participate in its new energy-financing program. The CPA has $30 million of tax exempt Industrial Development Bonds that will provide below market rate loans to manufacturing companies producing or choosing to install clean energy solutions in California. Manufacturers can participate in either of two ways:

(a) purchase and install renewable energy systems, energy-efficiency equipment, or clean distributed generation and

(b) use the financing to establish or expand the production of clean energy systems and components.

The CPA will implement the program and select eligible applicants, consistent with CDLAC procedures and other state and federal requirements. The first round proposal deadline was May 21, 2002. Our preliminary understanding is that a recent

California Public Utilities ruling may allow some double dipping of subsidy programs between the main PUC Renewable Program and subsidy programs of Municipal Utilities in the State. At the time of publishing, we have not yet confirmed the accuracy of this assertion. However, given the significance this would have, we believe we should bring the issue to the attention of QBUZZ readers.

This will allow follow up to confirm the position on this matter by both readers and ourselves.

Under the Solar to Market Initiative (SMI), the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative Renewable Energy Trust (MTC) has committed $10 million through June 2005 to expand the production and use of PV technologies in Massachusetts. The SMI includes two main program areas: PV installations and PV Business Development. The PV Installations Program provides grants to partially fund the installation of PV systems in Massachusetts.

The MTC anticipates that these programs will spur the installation of up to 1,000 PV systems resulting in approximately 750kW of new PV generating capacity. These systems are expected to be installed between the latter half of 2003 through to mid-2004. Utah and Kentucky have joined the ranks of states in which the state's utilities offer net metering to their customers (net metering allows customers to install their own power generation systems and feed excess power back into the grid). Net metering is now available to some extent in 36 states.

In New York, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) started a new and improved program to encourage solar energy use in late February. The second phase of LIPA's Solar Pioneer Program offers rebates of $6 per Watt for solar power systems up to 10 kilowatts in capacity, thus doubling both the rebate and the size limitation for the program. The rebates are available to both commercial and residential customers of LIPA and apply to systems installed and operating by Jul 31, 2002. After that, new systems will benefit from a rebate of $4 per Watt.

By the start of May 2002, Long Island Power Authority's (LIPA) increased per Watt rebate had quadrupled the number of solar systems being installed on Long Island housetops. Since December 2001, when LIPA doubled its per Watt rebate from $3 to $6 for solar systems installed by July 31; the number of rebate applications was 71. This compares with only 16 solar systems installed between 1999 and December 2001.

Arizona Public Service (APS) have introduced their "Solar Partners Plus" program targeted at residential and commercial customers, both on and off the electricity grid. The funding for the program is $1.2 million over 2002, 2003 and 2004. The buy-down (or rebate) is $2 per rated Watt (Wp) and is geared toward systems with array power ratings at or below 5 kWp. All equipment must be ordered and installed by Dec 31, 2004 to qualify for the program. Installations must be made by a licensed or APS approved solar contactor. They must use Underwriter Laboratories listed components and meet NEC standards.