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Development bank to lend millions for Philippine energy project

Business Materials 2 February 2009 09:50 (UTC +04:00)

The Asian Development Bank said Monday that it approved a 31.1-million-dollar loan to finance an energy-savings programme in the Philippines, dpa reported.

The Manila-based bank said the project would give away 13 million energy-saving lights to homeowners and businesses as part of the Philippine government's push to cut the nation's power bills.

The bank said the project would lead to savings of about 100 million dollars every year in fuel costs and a deferral of an investment of 450 million dollars in power generation and associated network capacity.

"The Philippine Energy Efficiency Project will distribute compact flourescent lamps [CFL] to customers nationwide in exchange for their incandescent bulbs," the bank said in a statement.

It said only 20 per cent of the electricity used by incandescent bulbs produces light with the remaining 80 per cent wasted as heat. In contrast, a CFLs use all of their electricity input to produce light.

"Put simply, if 1 million incandescent bulbs are replaced with CFLs at a cost of about 1.5 million dollars, the electricity demand will be reduce by 50 megawatts," said Sohail Hasnie, the bank's senior energy specialist.

"The impact on the power system will be the same as building a new 50-megawatt power station, which costs at least 50 million dollars," Hasnie added.

Th project is to also retrofit government office buildings and public lighting systems with other efficient lighting options and establish an energy service company to provide technical support to companies planning to reduce energy consumption.

The company, which would be established by the state-owned Philippine National Oil Co, would act as a one-stop shop for energy efficiency for public and private enterprises.

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