This small city in the Philippines is taking big steps to curb emissions
The making of a truly green city begins with calculating its carbon emissions, and then introducing policies that will spur the transition to renewable energy, say officials from San Carlos City in the Philippines.
San Carlos City in Negros Occidental, the Philippines, was once home to one of the country’s biggest sugar mills. But as the growth of the sugar industry has slowed since the 1980s, the city has sought alternative means of generating revenue. It has harnessed one of its most abundant natural resources: sunshine.
As a coastal city with a deep natural mangrove harbour, San Carlos is more resilient than most Philippine cities to extreme weather. And with limited cloud cover, the city enjoys more sunshine than other parts of the country, so has plenty of renewable energy potential.
As such, San Carlos is shaping up to be the Philippines’ renewable energy hub.
In 2014, a 45-megawatt solar plant—one of the country’s first solar facilities—was built in San Carlos City by renewable energy company San Carlos Solar Energy. In 2016, a 59-megawatt solar power plant went into operation. The plant is owned by San Carlos Sun Power Inc., a subsidiary of AboitizPower, one of the country’s leading renewable energy developers.
Besides solar power farms, San Carlos City is home to one of the country’s biggest biomass and bioethanol plants.
