WHAT used to be a fishpond in Valenzuela City is now a solar power farm set to supply electricity to a leading distribution company.
Inaugurated recently, the solar power farm owned by the Valenzuela Solar Energy, Inc. is using over 32,000 solar panels sprawled across 11 hectares of property in Barangay Isla.
Joeven Go, VSEI assistant manager, said the solar panels can generate a total 8.6 megawatts of electricity, an amount that could power as much as 61,920 households. By December 14, the farm will start supplying a distribution company with this electricity.
The solar farm is the largest of its kind in any city in the Philippines today. The solar power panels at the farm convert sunlight into electricity.
Unlike fossil fuels, the most common source of electricity in the world today, solar energy is renewable, which means it does not run out, the sun being an eternal source.
No less than Mayor Rex Gatchalian and brothers leading senatorial bet Rep. Win Gatchalian and Rep. Wes Gatchalian of the Alay-Buhay party-list welcome the enterprise, saying it is a significant step towards Valenzuela living up to its live-able city status.
The Gatchalian brothers were in unison that the solar farm will surely provide employment among Isla residents aside from donating solar panels to Isla Elementary School, helping the school bring down its electricity expenses.
The city, whose economy is largely driven by factories, has recently begun changing its “factory town” image into that of a “live-able city,” or one that encourages safe and healthy living among its residents.
In February this year, the city government opened the Valenzuela City People’s Park, which, at 1.3 hectares, is the biggest park in northern Metro Manila today.
A disaster response complex is also being constructed in a property across the city hall in Barangay Malinta. Its design won the National Competitiveness Council and Microsoft’s Liveable Cities Design Challenge in 2014.
TREE OF HOPE
Meanwhile, the Gatchalian brothers and other local government officials lighted recently the 50-foot Christmas Tree towering over the People’s Park with its theme: “Maningning na Pasko ng Pamilyang Valenzuelano.”
Standing at the center of the Aerocircle, a frequent venue for group exercises, the tree is decorated with clusters of artificial poinsettias, balls, stockings and ribbons.
Each year, the tree is dedicated to a particular group picked by the city government, according to Mayor Rex who says:
“There’s no better group to dedicate the tree this year than the family.”
Past dedicatees include street sweepers, barangay health workers, feeding program volunteers, and, in 2013, people displaced by typhoon Yolanda. GOOD RIDDANCE/ARLIE CALALO
