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Securing Loan Funding for Solar Micro-grids in Indigenous Philippine Communities
| Bioregion | Philippines & Sulu Sea Tropical Forests (IM15) |
| Category | Energy Transition Our project categories represent one of three core solutions pathways to solving climate change. Energy Transition focuses on renewable energy access and energy efficiency. Nature Conservation includes wildlife habitat protection and ecosystem restoration, as well as Indigenous land rights. Regenerative Agriculture supports farmers, ranchers, and community agriculture. |
| Realm | Indomalaya The Project Marketplace is organized by the major terrestrial realms divided into 14 biogeographical regions – N. America, Subarctic America, C. America, S. America, Afrotropics, Indomalaya, Australasia, Oceania, Antarctica, and the Palearctic realm, which coincides with Eurasia and is divided into Subarctic, Western, Central, Eastern, and Southern regions. |
| Status | active Seed indicates an early stage project that needs some level of support to develop into a larger funding proposal. Active indicates any project that needs core programmatic funding. Urgent indicates a short-term project initiated in response to a natural disaster or other impending risk. |
| Partner | New Energy Nexus |
One Earth’s Project Marketplace funds on-the-ground climate solutions that are key to solving the climate crisis through three pillars of collective action — renewable energy, nature conservation, and regenerative agriculture.
More than 10 million Filipinos do not have access to electricity. With the country being archipelagic, household communities in mountainous and remote islands are not connected to grids and depend heavily on kerosene lamps as a source of lighting.
Two social enterprises supported by New Energy Nexus Philippines are working towards helping these communities by providing access to clean energy through solar microgrids and home systems, providing capacity building for improving livelihoods. New Energy Nexus Philippines and partner Solar Hope are working to directly scale more clean energy startups and entrepreneurs in the region.
Image credit: Courtesy of New Energy Nexus
Solar Hope works with Indigenous communities such as the Dumagats of Tanay, Rizal, and the Badjaos in Batangas. Their startup first engaged with these communities in 2018 by providing solar lamps and working with the communities to secure funds and donations for solar microgrids that households can use for a more stable source of light and phone charging. The next phase is to provide solar hubs that will be a center for livelihood improvement, supporting bamboo weaving industries, agricultural products, and other micro-enterprises.
With the support of Indigenous community champions, Solar Hope will train and support a new generation of clean energy entrepreneurs in the region. With a project funding goal of $16,000, they hope to uplift the lives of these Indigenous People communities by providing them with the appropriate resources in terms of equipment, technical training, and enterprise skills and management. This will enable four beneficiary communities to have 208 lighted homes and train 25 community solar champions.
As the first phase of providing energy access to the Dumagat community, training is conducted for community champions who will be in charge of the installation and maintenance of the solar home systems. Solar Hope’s goal is to secure funds to be loaned to the beneficiaries and to work closely with their community champions to support operations until they are able to repay the loans and earn a profit.