Mindanaotoday.com | Solar panel traders warn online buyers
By: Uriel Quilinguing
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – TWO Cagayan de Oro-based business firms engaged in the marketing of solar panels have warned the public from buying online and hiring of inexperienced installers.
In a clean energy forum here on Friday, March 10, speakers from Greenergy Development Corp. and Ulric Solar Power Enterprises Corp. said buying these photovoltaic modules online and installing these by themselves would be risky.
“It’s different if we have a physical office,” said Engr. John Mark Carpio of Ulric Solar, whose business address is at Cahulugan Square, Xavier Estates in this city, in reference to consumer’s rights of repair, replace, or refund.
Carpio said installing in-grid solar panels poses risks to buyers and inexperienced installers, instead of legitimate and trained personnel from the Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company (Cepalco).
Engr. Cerael Donggay, president and chief executive of Greenergy, said he had tried ordering a solar panel online and it did not last long, unlike those from reputable companies that usually have 25-year lifespan.
Donggay, a former National Power Corporation senior executive, said Greenergy has facilitated the installation of in-grid solar panels to over 200 households in Cagayan de Oro, all under the Department of Energy’s net-metering scheme.
Ulric Solar, Carpio said, has also assisted over a hundred of their solar-panel customers for in-grid net metering with Cepalco and their customers have been generating “savings” from usual electric bills.
Both Carpio and Donggay cited Cepalco, which is now on its centennial this year, for eased clean energy transition by installing the solar modules within 30 days, much ahead of the Department of Energy-prescribed 90-day duration.
They said electric cooperatives, the distribution utilities in Misamis Oriental and nearby areas, do not have the same enthusiasm and technical expertise as Cepalco when it comes to net-metering program.
Meanwhile, Engr. Leonardo Gumalal, Cepalco senior vice-president and corporate planning head, said they have long been into the renewable energy development projects, hence they welcome the net-metering innovation.
Gumalal enumerated their renewable energy projects which include two mini-hydroelectric power plants at Bobonawan river in Baungon, Bukidnon and at Cabulig river, Jasaan, Misamis Oriental; and two grid-embedded solar photovoltaic power plants in Indahag village, Cagayan de Oro and in Villanueva town, Misamis Oriental
In the same forum, Engr. Erick George D. Uy, a science research specialist at the Davao City-based DOE Mindanao Office, said that while renewable energy should share 50% in the power-generation mix nationwide by 2040 from 22% in 2021, yet this target is challenged by unpredictable weather.
Hydroelectric plants cannot optimize their installed capacities during droughts while solar panels cannot store energy under stormy weather conditions, hence the unreliability of renewable energy sources, Dy said.
The forum at SM Downtown Premier mall was organized by the Department of Trade and Industry Misamis Oriental in time for this year’s World Consumers Rights Day. (MT)
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