Research on ocean, solar energies pushed

Two emerging studies for the development of renewable energy technologies in the country will be focused by the research center of Ateneo de Davao University (AdDu). Recently, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) granted P68.6 million to the university for its research and development (R&D) on a renewable energy project.

“[The amount] will be, first, for the establishment of the Mindanao renewable energy center. That center has to focus researches on the ocean renewable energy and the other is the concentrated solar thermal energy because they are specifically focused on the development of technologies,” Center for Renewable Energy and Appropriate Technologies (Create) Director Nelson Enano Jr., said in an interview with SunStar Davao last Friday, December 7, 2018. Enano explained that the concentrated solar thermal energy will be coming from the sun’s light energy while the ocean renewable energy could be from tidal barrages, offshore wind energy, and ocean thermal, and salinity gradient energy. He further said that these studies are new in the country and abroad.

Both are emerging researches which means that Mindanao is coping with the development of these technologies. “The whole world is studying it at the moment and maganda dito sa AdDu kasi nakasali tayo sa effort na pag-aralan ang renewable energy, especially its technologies,” Enano said, adding that ocean renewable energy technologies is very significant in the Philippines as it is an archipelago. /