3 riders making 6,600-km tour for 'solar' Pinoy homes

Three motorcycle riders are making a 19-day, 6,600-kilometer tour from Tuguegarao to Zamboanga for a project that aims to bring solar energy to four million Filipino homes. From April to May, two Filipinos and a Frenchman are embarking on the tour for a project called “Ride for Light 2011," an initiative of the Solar Energy Foundation (SEF), an international organization that promotes solar energy to reduce poverty. Escorted by colleagues and local communities, the three riders — Frenchman and SEF board member Philippe Saubier, photographer Ibba Rasul Bernardo, and mechanic Antonio Villanueva — will donate portable solar home systems to community partners, allowing communities to enjoy solar energy in a sustainable manner. The project aims to reach 40 remote communities in the Philippines, focusing particularly on indigenous groups. Chaired by former Ayala Land president Jaime Ayala, the SEF has collaborated with telecommunications firm Globe Telecom to open the project for donations. Globe will allow users to make donations via GCash, its remittance service. “Every hundred pesos they donate through GCash can light one night for a family living without electricity," said Rock-Li Kim of Hybrid Social Solutions (HSSi), SEF’s distribution arm in the Philippines. The 40 communities that the three riders will visit belong to the 26.4-percent of the population that still has no access to electricity, and whose productivity usually drops with the absence of natural light in the evening. With Luzon facing the threat of an energy shortage, another group — the Philippine Solar Power Alliance — last year pushed for its own energy projects before the Department of Energy. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/204285/solar-power-group-urges-doe-to-fast-track-projects A 2004 study by the National Statistics Office showed that over 87.6 percent of Filipinos depend on electricity for fuel, while over half rely on liquefied petroleum gas, kerosene, and wood. — BC/PE/VS, GMA News