Current Projects

• Candelaria Solar Water Pump
• Chel Micro Hydroelectric Project
• Chirinos Solar and Pico Hydro Project
• Cochrane High School Sustainable Development Project
• Dalit LED Project
• Galapagos Solar Project
• Karen Solar Project
• Potreritos Solar Water Pump Project
• Shuar Solar Project
• Shuar Solar Project 2

Past Projects

• El Bote Project
• Humla Pico Project
• Long Lewan Micro-Hydro Project
• Mini-Hydroelectric Plant
• Pelly Crossing Electrification Project
• Polocon Micro-Hydro Power Project
• Renewable Engery Education Project
• Saloy Micro-Hydro Project

Polocon Micro-Hydro Power Project

Sitio Polocon is composed of five communities and is part of the upland watershed of Davao City, Philippines. It is situated 53 kilometers west of Davao City, passing through Calinan proper, and can be reached by motorbike and public jeepney.

The main crops are vegetables, corn and upland rice (indigenous varieties), root crops, and other permanent crops. The sitio is composed of 110 families. About 60% are women. About 99% of the residents are settlers - Cebuanos, Boholanos and Leyteños and the remaining 1% belongs to the indigenous Matigsalog tribes.

The residents of Polocon and the nearby communities of Cabonbon, Binaton and Saloy do not have electricity. Only a few have 12-volt batteries, which are mainly used to provide power to radios. But they have to transport their batteries for charging in grid-connected stations at Calinan, about 25 kilometers away.

THE PROJECT - This project is a 15-kilowatt community-managed micro-hydropower facility, which serves as an alternative and environmentally friendly model for utilizing renewable source of energy. A locally manufactured pelton water turbine (double jet) is used to drive a synchronous generator (alternator) that would in turn provide electricity and run a corn mill and corn sheller that directly benefits the Polocon residents and indirectly the nearby communities through the corn mill and corn sheller facilities. EnerGreen is helping to fund the development of an electrical load controller for the project, training of the staff on the operation and maintenance of the equipment. The installation of this equipment will result in direct mechanical energy to run the corn miller and coffee huller.

The catchment area of the micro-hydro project is a 7 square kilometers of hilly terrain. The base flow of the creeks is maintained by small springs emanating from the watershed. Flow measurement show that the creek is sustained throughout the year with a minimum flow of 50 liters per second during dry season. The peak of the watershed area is at 767 meters above sea level (masl). The whole watershed area comprised 2/3 of the total land area of around 10 square kilometers. The topography offers a very good site for micro-hydropower development. It has a drop of 65 meters down the relatively steep slope with a total reach of 125 meters. With the available flow of 50 liters/sec and a gross head (difference in elevation or drop), the installed power capacity is 15- kilowatts (or 15,000 watts).

ALTERNATIVE MODEL FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT - This project supports the over-all community development program in Polocon being initiated by the Polocon People Power Electric Cooperative and the Yamog Renewable Energy Devt. Group, Inc.

Micro-hydropower development has a lot of potential in raising the level of environmental awareness of the community folks especially when they come to understand that it is dependent on the watershed. Therefore they would be more encouraged to protect their forests without which their micro-hydro facility would not function. A 25-hectare watershed area is being rehabilitated and maintained by the community to ensure the adequate water supply and ultimately the sustainability of the project.

The community-based people's organization, in coordination with the Barangay, has been involved since the pre-conceptualization stage of the project. In order to foster and enhance active community participation of the project, human resources and manpower were pooled together to contribute labor and locally available transmission poles and household wirings as their community counterpart in order to realize the project.

By recognizing the indispensability of people's participation, the community-based project has promoted a sense of ownership among the members, which is essential in ensuring project sustainability. Local operators and managers have been identified. Furthermore, the local people's organization is given hands-on training to strengthen the capacity to manager and sustain the project.

The community members took part in the actual construction and commissioning of the project. The tariff structure is such that it would enable them to pay for the wages of the local operators and the maintenance and set aside amount for other community development.