A topnotcher in a business school, Kapunan is now gaining popularity among the rural folk of the Higantes Island group because his company, Progressive Bank Inc., a microfinance institution, has been lending soft term loans to them so they can electrify their homes with solar panels and batteries.

Kapunan’s group is the first to be accredited by the Department of Energy’s and the World Bank’s Project ACCESS, which just last Dec. 18 signed MOAs with the Solar Electric Co., Mirant and the Alliance for Mindanao Offgrid Renewable Energy (AMORE) project of the USAID to implement rural electrification using renewable energies like solar, micro hydro and wind energies.

Solar Electric Co. under Robert Lopez Puckett will supply the units to the borrowers of microfinance companies like Kapunan’s Progressive Bank Inc.

Progressive has been tasked to provide funds for solar energy to 200 households (at 1 panel per household with a system capable of generating 20 or 28 watts per panel) in the Higantes Island group for the next six months. It is responsible for collecting from the beneficiaries. Higantes is composed of the towns of Canlas, Balasan, Sara, Constancia, Ahuy and Concepcion and the Sicogon Island.

AMORE is headed by Tetchi Cruz-Capellan, formerly Agriculture Undersecretary for Jobs Creation and has been supplying electricity to the remotest barangays of Mindanao, particularly ARMM which are too costly to be supplied by the grid. Most of the funds of AMORE came from Mirant and DoE and the USAID through Winrock International.

The DoE supplies the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) the funds needed by microfinance companies and even the Quedancor to lend to individual farm families. "There are no microfinance companies accredited by DoE for the Northern Samar and Masbate area yet. So maybe Progressive will get into it later," Puckett said.

Puckett said the problem with supplying solar energy to rural folks is their big expectations. "When we install solar panels in their homes, they expect that the panels can power lights, TV, ref and other appliances. For this to be achieved, they have to buy more panels to absorb more energy from the sun and more batteries to store the energy," Puckett said.

A panel worth P23,000 commercially but only P21,500 at 20 watts to the program beneficiaries can light only 2 to 3 lights and a radio or sometimes tv but not for prolonged use, he explained. For the beneficiaries to have more energy supply, as they expect, then they have to upgrade the system and buy more panels and batteries, he added.