Renewable Energy Sources in the Philippines

• The Philippines is a tropical country with a high potential to produce energy from natural resources, including solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric power.

• The country is located near the equator, making solar energy readily available, and is also situated in the Pacific Ring of Fire, providing a high geothermal potential.

• Renewable energy resources can be replenished or replaced in a short period, whereas non-renewable resources have a limited supply and take thousands or millions of years to replace.

• Examples of renewable energy sources include solar, hydropower, biomass, geothermal, and wind, while non-renewable sources include oil, coal, natural gas, and nuclear.

• The Philippines has been generating energy from renewable sources for a long time, with a growing recognition of the benefits of renewable energies as an alternative to oil and carbon.

• Renewable energy resources, also known as flow resources, replenish themselves at the rate they are used, either through natural reproduction or recurring processes.

• Hydroelectric power is a form of energy that harnesses the power of water in motion to generate electricity, with most hydroelectric power plants having a reservoir of water, a gate or valve to control water flow, and an outlet where the water ends up after flowing downward.

• The Philippines makes use of two ways to harness water power: dam storage or poundage, and run of river, with dam storage using artificial dams to store water and run of river depending on flowing bodies of water like waterfalls.

• Hydroelectric power plants in the Philippines are found in Pangasinan, with examples including the Maria Cristina Falls, which powers the Agus 6 hydroelectric plant with a 200 megawatt potential capacity.

• The advantages of hydroelectric power include making use of available resources, not producing pollutants, being more reliable than wind or solar, generating electricity constantly, and having stored water ready to cope with peaks in demand.

• The disadvantages of hydroelectric power include the high cost of building dams, and potential environmental impacts.Here are the detailed bullet points summarizing the text:

• Building dams for hydroelectric power is difficult due to potential flooding and drought effects on water levels.

• Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source generated from heat within the Earth's core, making it clean, renewable, and harnessed for heat and electricity.

• Geothermal power plants in the Philippines are found in Laguna, Sorsogon, Albay, and Batangas, with the country ranking second in geothermal energy use globally.

• There are two methods of extracting geothermal energy in the Philippines: flash steam and binary cycle.

• Flash steam power plants use naturally occurring hot water and steam to generate electricity, while binary cycle power plants conserve water and generate heat through a unique process.

• The advantages of geothermal power include being environmentally friendly, a renewable source, sustainable, and having low pollution levels.

• The disadvantages of geothermal power include being location-specific, releasing gases during digging, and being expensive to tap into.

• Solar power is a renewable energy source generated from the sun's rays, converted into usable electricity through photovoltaic solar panels.

• The Philippines has incorporated large-scale solar farms, with major solar farms found in Batangas and Cavite.

• The advantages of solar power include being free, non-polluting, and usable in remote areas.

• The disadvantages of solar power include not working at night, being expensive, and being unreliable.

• Wind energy is a renewable energy source generated from the wind's kinetic energy, converted into electricity through wind turbines.

• Wind energy power plants in the Philippines are found in Ilocos Norte, Rizal, Guimaras, and Aklan.

• The advantages of wind energy include not requiring fuel, producing no waste or pollution, and serving as tourist destinations.

• The disadvantages of wind energy include being weather-dependent, expensive to build, killing birds, affecting television reception, and causing noise pollution.

• Biomass energy is a renewable energy source generated from organic materials, including plant and animal waste, combusted to produce electricity or heat.

• The Philippines has abundant biomass resources, including agricultural crop residues, forest residues, animal waste, and municipal solid waste.

• Biomass power plants in the Philippines are found in Negros Occidental, Bataan, Iloilo, Bukidnon, and other locations.

• The advantages of biomass energy include using waste materials, being cheap, and producing less greenhouse gases.

• The disadvantages of biomass energy include producing greenhouse gases during combustion and difficulty in collecting waste in sufficient quantities.

• Fossil fuels are non-renewable energy resources formed from decomposing plants and animals, including coal, crude oil, and natural gas.

• The Philippines has fossil fuel deposits, including coal in Cagayan Valley and Mindanao, and natural gas in Palawan.

• The advantages of fossil fuels include ease of transport, being a cheap source of energy, and generating large amounts of electricity.

• The disadvantages of fossil fuels include having a limited supply, causing pollution, producing carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, and contributing to acid rain.

• Nuclear energy is a non-renewable energy resource generated from radioactive elements, including uranium and plutonium.

• The Philippines has a nuclear power plant in Bataan, which is currently not operating due to safety concerns.

• The advantages of nuclear energy include being a reliable source, not being expensive, not contributing to greenhouse effect, and producing small amounts of waste.

• The disadvantages of nuclear energy include radioactive waste disposal, safety hazards, and expensive construction costs.- The activity is to design and build a toy car powered by wind energy, using materials such as corrugated cardboard, construction paper, wooden skewers, plastic straws, plastic bottle caps, tape, scissors, and a cutter.

• The car's body is made from a piece of cardboard, with two straws taped across the bottom to form the axles, and two wooden skewers pushed through the straws to hold the bottle caps, which act as wheels.
• A mast is created by inserting a wooden skewer upright into a hole in the cardboard, secured with tape, and a sail is attached to the mast using the skewer.
• Three sails of different sizes but the same shape are created, and the car is tested by placing it in front of a fan to see how far it travels with each sail.
• The procedure involves poking the upright skewer through both ends of the smallest sail, placing the car in front of the fan, and turning the fan on to see how far the car goes.
• The activity is repeated with the next largest sail and then the largest sail, and the distance traveled is recorded each time.
• An optional procedure involves trying sails of different shapes to see which one works best, and using a variable speed fan to test how the fan speed affects the car's travel distance.
• The activity is part of the Environmental Science Quarter 4 Module 1, and is used to assess students' understanding of wind energy and energy resources in the Philippines.