Electricity Generation from Renewable Energy
College of Engineering, Isabela State University, San Fabian, Echague, Isabela
I. INTRODUCTION
The modern world relies on an enormous
supply of electricity and heat energy to power
countless daily activities. Although the majority of
electricity and heat energy assists people in meeting
their basic human needs, among them the need for
subsistence as defined by Max-Neef and others
(1989), the way in which it is generated and
distributed is at odds with the ability of people to
continue to meet their needs into the future.
The main resources used to generate
electricity and heat energy worldwide are non-
renewable fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil, as
well as nonrenewable nuclear materials. In OECD
countries, electricity generation consists of 62%
generation from fossil fuels and 21% generation
from nuclear materials (IEA 2010). Heat energy is
generated using 55% fossil fuels (IEA 2010). As a
consequence, most communities in the developed
world receive most of their electrical and heat
energy from non-renewable sources.
Over the last century, generating power
from renewable sources has sparked a wide range of
basic and applied research and engineering.
Renewable energy is energy produced from natural
sources such the sun, wind, biomass, and water.
These renewable energy sources are also
replenished naturally. It's also known as "green
energy" or "clean energy" because, unlike fossil
fuels like coal and oil, the process of generating
electricity from these renewable sources releases no
or very little greenhouse gases.
Moving away from these old sources of
energy is a critical step in combating climate change
and improving the quality of the air we breathe. To
power countless everyday activities, the
contemporary world relies on a tremendous quantity
of electrical and thermal energy. Although the
majority of electrical and heat energy helps people
achieve their fundamental human requirements,
such as sustenance, as described by Max-Neef and
others (1989), the way it is created and delivered is
incompatible with people's capacity to meet those
needs in the future.
In a rapidly urbanizing country like the
Philippines- where almost 8,000 regional districts
are without access to electricity- the task of
providing access to reliable and affordable energy
supply is daunting. This paper focused on the
importance of renewable energy to Philippine
energy security and sustainability agenda.
This paper examined the status of renewable
energy in the Philippines and discussed the
opportunities and challenges in the further
development and deployment of renewable energy.
This research relied on secondary data from the
Philippine Department of Energy, ASEAN Centre
for Energy, the International Energy Agency, and
other International data.
II. OBJECTIVES
Using renewable energy sources for your
house's power can help you minimize your carbon
footprint, make your home more sustainable, and
perhaps cut your energy expenses. The benefits are
undeniably great.
Renewable energy technologies are
environmentally friendly energy sources that have a
lesser environmental effect than traditional energy
sources. Although importing electricity is
expensive, the majority of renewable energy
1
investments are made in local resources and labor to
construct and operate the plants.
Renewable energy sources may be used for
one or more of three different types of energy
generation focused on in this research:
1. Electricity generation;
2. Heat generation; and
3. Heat energy generated as a by-product of
electrical energy generation – cogeneration, usually
termed ‘combined heat and power’ (CHP).
The International Energy Agency (IEA)
(2005, 19) defines renewable energy as energy
sources that, “apart from geothermal energy, are
drawn directly or indirectly from current or recent
flows of the constantly available solar and
gravitational energy”. This research focuses on
communities using renewable energy sources.
These renewable energy sources included:
• Solar;
• Wind;
• Biogas;
• Biomass;
• Geothermal; and
• Run-of-the-river hydropower.
For the purpose of this study however, the
author, wishes to contribute partially on the
community empowerment (Social and Economic)
aspect of participatory planning in rural renewable
energy.
III. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
With the goal of studying the significance
and feasibility of exploiting renewable energy
resources in the Philippines for sustainable
development, this paper also studied the knowledge,
perception and support of the public with regards to
renewable energy.
This research is guided by two primary
research questions:
1. What benefits and community involvement
methods are present in studied community
renewable energy projects?
2. What are the keys to success and challenges for
communities implementing community renewable
energy projects?
IV. METHODOLOGY
Although some technical aspects have been
covered by this study, the author wishes to
compliment and encourage further exploration of
the technical aspects of the unserved community in
the rural areas of the Philippines via off-grid
options. In doing so, the author have followed the
below method:
 Literature Review and Best Practices in the
field of Rural Renewable Energy
 Overview of the Available RRE Resources
V. RESULTS
Here, the researcher presents the community
benefits of renewable energy highlighted in
literature review, presented in social, economic,
political, and environmental categories. Based on
this understanding, the researcher investigated these
possible benefits and looked for others in the actual
experience of communities undertaking community
renewable energy projects.
Social Benefits
According to Warren and McFadyen (2010),
some communities experience an increase in local
knowledge about sustainability from renewable
2
energy, sometimes aided by the development of
renewable energy education centres (del Rı´o and
Burguillo 2009) which help inform the public about
renewable energy. According to Walker (2008), this
increased knowledge may contribute to an increased
local environmental commitment. Increased
knowledge may also help community members
establish a clear link between local generation and
local consumption (St Denis and Parker 2008) and
be more aware of where their energy comes from.
Hoffman and High-Pippert (2009) report an
elevated sense of community cohesion and social
and civic gratification in communities which
undertake CRE projects. On top of these benefits,
many communities experience an improved image
and reputation of their local areas from CRE
projects (Michalena and Angeon 2003)
Community members benefit in many cases
by experiencing reduced energy costs (St Denis and
Parker 2009; del Rı´o and Burguillo 2009; Walker
2008; Van Hoesen 2010; Jennings and Healey
2001) and a reduced dependence on outside, non-
renewable energy sources (Jennings and Healey
2001). Individual investors in CRE in the
community also receive income and tax benefits
(Hoffman and High-Pippert 2009). It is not just
community members that can benefit economically,
but also Municipalities, in the form of tax and land
rental income (del Rı´o and Burguillo 2009). Some
CRE project operators also experience reduced
maintenance and operating costs (Cosmi and others
2003) in comparison to non-CRE projects, and often
one CRE project leads to new CRE projects being
undertaken in the community (Hoffman and High-
Pippert 2009).
Technical Benefits
Technical benefits of establishing CRE
projects include an increased reliability of energy
supply due to utilizing localized energy sources
(Walker 2008). There are also often shorter
transport distances, reduced energy transmission
losses and increased energy efficiencies (Van
Hoesen 2010; European Parliament 2009). In many
cases, producing energy locally helps to ensure that
energy supply better meets demand (St Denis and
Parker 2008).
Political Benefits
Establishing a community renewable energy
project, according to Warren and McFadyen (2010),
has been shown in some cases to contribute to
progress in government and international emissions
reductions targets. CRE can also increase local
control over energy, and the security of energy
supply for a community (Walker 2008; Michalena
and Angeon 2003; European Parliament 2009).
CRE can also give communities independence from
increasingly strained energy networks (Van Hoesen
2010).
Environmental benefits.
As a result of CRE projects, some
communities recognize the benefit of achieving
greenhouse gas emissions reductions (St Denis and
Parker 2009; Cosmi and others 2003).
These benefits demonstrate the many
reasons why CRE can be important for a
community across a wide range of areas. Although
benefits will be different for each community, we
expected that reported benefits such as these would
act as incentives that create motivation for
communities to initiate CRE projects.
VI. CONCLUSION
To summarize, ecologically clean
renewables play a critical role in addressing our
communities’ energy insecurity in a sustainable
way, which is impossible to do with other sources
of energy, while some of these types are
environmentally unsustainable (e.g., coal and thus
coal-fired electricity generators), another type,
which does not emit GHG (nuclear power
generators), is perhaps too costly and/or
3
unaffordable for many Asian countries, including
south east Asian ones.
In light of the growing focus on the
importance of education, gender, and health for
development, the energy practice has to rethink its
approach to energy usage for productive purposes.
An essential component of energy and productive
applications is the emphasis on motive power that
immediately leads to increased revenues. However,
the paper advocates for a much broader strategy in
this paper. The goal of development is to create a
world where everyone is healthy, educated, and
socially equitable.
Although money production is an important
part of achieving this aim, any use of energy that
contributes to education, health, or gender justice
should be considered a constructive use of energy.
While CRE can provide some solutions to
the sustainability challenges outlined above, it may
still have unintended negative impacts unless a
community is progressing strategically towards
sustainability. This research seeks to integrate the
development of CRE in the developed world with
an SSD approach, in order to help communities
interested in developing CRE projects, or already
underway with CRE projects, ensure that they are
moving towards sustainable energy generation –
what we term Sustainable Community Renewable
Energy, or SCRE.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This study was carried under the subject CE 313
Engineering Utilities 1. The creation of this paper
helped me become more curious of the community
renewable resources and it opened my mind into
considering renewable energy as a source of
electricity.
This paper would not have been possible
without Dr. Gorgonio Vallestero, whose guidance
from the initial step enabled me to develop an
understanding of the subject. I am thankful for the
extraordinary experiences he arranged for me and
for providing opportunities for me to grow
professionally. It is an honor to learn from Dr.
Gorgonio Vallestero of the College of Engineering.
A particular thanks to my sister, Junaleah
Eustaquio, for always being there for me whenever
I needed help with housework or school costs.
Finally and most specially, I would like to
praise and thank God, the almighty, who has
granted countless blessing and provided me with the
knowledge and strength to do this task despite my
family and health issues.
REFERENCES
 Stephanie Ching (2018, December)
Harnessing Renewable Energy Towards
Sustainable Development In The Philippines
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/33
5227553_Harnessing_Renewable_Energy_T
owards_Sustainable_Development_in_the_P
hilippines
 MATEC Web of Conferences (2016,
January) A Review Of Community-Based
Solar Home System Projects In The
Philippines
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/30
6075491_A_review_of_community-
based_solar_home_system_projects_in_the_
Philippines
 Aaswath P.Raman, et.al. (2019, August 9)
Generating Light from Darkness
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/articl
e/pii/S254243511930412X
 R. Anil Cabraal, Douglas F. Barnes, and
Sachin G. Agarwal1
(2008) Productive Uses Of Energy For Rural
Development
4
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1
146/annurev.energy.30.050504.14422