There’s Gold In Them There Philippines
Well, of course, there is a lot of real gold in the Philippines. Mining for minerals is enjoying quite a boom lately,and the Philippines is rich in a number of important minerals, gold being one of the most well known.
But that is not the sort of gold I am thinking of. I’m thinking about gold the Philippines is sitting on that will never run out, which requires no environmentally damaging methods to mine and which they can, and do use today in a profitable, environmental way. Geothermal power production.
Geothermal power is simply the act of using steam produced by heating water in the deep, hot parts of the Earth’s crust to turn turbine wheels which are connected to generators that produce electric power for the grid. Many people don’t understand the fact that virtually all the electric power we consume in the US, or in the Philippines and most other countries is steam generated. Even nuclear (or nu-clue-your if your initials are GWB) is steam produced power … the reactor heats water to make steam to urn the turbines and generators. The same with oil, natural gas or coal-fired conventional plants. Just find heat to turn water to steam and you have electricity. (hydro-electric plants use gravity-flow of water to turn the turbine wheels … we won’t cover them here).
A perfect example of the largest geothermal commercially viable electric generating pant in the world is located on the island of Leyte in the Visayas region of the Philippines. You thought the Philippines was just a backward, "third-world" country, but they could certainly show the US a lot about energy use.
So why am I writing this? Simple. A lot of the energy used by the Philippines comes from coal. Coal is a horrible fuel to use for electricity generation. It is environmentally ruinous to extract from the earth, it wastes a huge fortune in transportation costs, it’s not particularly efficient to burn and it’s an environmental disaster to burn.
The second largest city in the Philippines (in population, Bob, not land area ;-)) is Cebu. Cebu gets nearly all it’s electric energy from the Leyte Geothermal Production Field (LGPF). Recent usage trends show Cebu needs more capacity. Of course the simple method would be to string more undersea cables to Leyte … that’s what has served Cebu well for years.
But nope, the Philippine government has entered into a project to build a huge new cola generation plant on Cebu. Why? It’s an utterly stupid thing to do, but some misguided international agency wants to lend money and the administration is falling all over themselves to accept yet more debt and further mortgage the Philippines. Not to mention the deaths that will be caused by the pollution. And not to mention the current coal-burning plants are unable to buy enough coal to keep adequate stockpiles. Not enough coal in Asia? Hmm, build more coal-fired plants. How dumb a decision is that, really?
I don’t often make many appeals, but if you know anyone who has any government connections … or if you’re one of my Filipino readers who has access to normal government channels … do think about taki8ng action now. This is environmental and economic suicide in the making.
Related posts:
- Saving Energy for Practical People — Part 1
- Good Chismis (Philippine Gossip)
- Saving Energy for Practical People — Part 2
- What’s an IPSW and Why do You Care?
- Alternatives To The High Cost Of Energy — Part 4
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May 26th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
It’s difficult to break thru the barriers of the status quo in the Phils, just as it is difficult to penetrate the rice bowl mentality that some possess. Geothermal projects face opposition just as coal-fired project do: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view_article.php?article_id=138950
May 27th, 2008 at 12:06 am
Here’s an article on mining for real gold in the PI:
http://www.321gold.com/editorials/moriarty/moriarty052308.html
May 27th, 2008 at 12:25 am
@ Paul, Thanks, interesting article. thanks. I know geothermal has its opponents, that’s kind of the point of what I wrote. Likely you will find money from coal or other energy companies supporting these groups. Hate to make is sound like a conspiracy theory, but …
The beauty of geo is, zero pollution and near zero impact on the environment. I saw a nice peice on Discovery the other night from the US a geothermal plant in a western state had been built and then shut down … economically unfeasible … meaning the oil and coal fired industry dropped prices Wal*Mart style until they had to close the doors. Well, when oil hit $200 a barrel, guess what just became economically feasible
@ Tom, thanks for that article, I’ll look it over. I know a lot about the gold industry here, I have a brother in law who has been a mining engineer here for 40 years or so now. There is still a _LOT_ of gold and other precious metals. Funny thin\g is, gold companies are hurting because the International Mining Exchange in London which actually sets world prices is US Dollar denominated, so real prices have dipped badly this past year.
May 27th, 2008 at 2:00 am
Yes, I’ve been watching gold and am seeking to make it part of my portfolio. I’ll also considering buying the physical stuff and keeping a little around in case all heck breaks loose.
Gold cooled off there for a while but its now making a little run. I was hoping that it would pull back to $780 or so … but no such luck.
May 27th, 2008 at 3:03 am
I don’t think a person can go wrong at all, owning gold. Especially jewelry of decent quality. The Philippines, by the way, is the pawn shop capital of the world … my wife bailed more than one relative out of the hospital or took care of some immediate need she wanted to handle on her own, with a quicktrip to the pawn shop.
My view is, certainly keep at least enough gold to pay your way back to the US or some other destination (this is nothing more than a few necklaces or such). That way no matter what tricks banks might pull out of their sleeve, you’ll never be trapped.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:10 am
Philly,
I saw a news item the other night about London City Council’s attempt to reduce carbon emissions by 60%. They hired a guy from Woking City who had designed a system of energy production that made Woking self sufficient i.e not reliant on the national grid.
Anyway, the major point made by the London City people was that we cannot rely on national governments to solve the energy problem and so the city authorities must act indepedently and devise their own solution. As the major cities of the world use most of the world’s energy, these cities may well be able to solve the problem whilst the national government politicians continue to dither.
May 27th, 2008 at 8:35 am
I agree completely, Laurence. certainly in the US (and I suspect many other countries) we depend too much on “the government” to solve problems. Frankly, that is not the function of government.
However, on that same Discovery Network show I saw a segment with a commercial enterprise in the US, start-up funding from a government grant — who was developing and already had running in pilot form a system that burned up all municipal waste by means of ion fusion and gained energy in the process. Their figures indicated a municipality that spent $95 a ton to dispose of waste now could actually switch to a $15 a ton profit on their trash.
Obviously, these are the sorts of efforts that _do_ require “invention/development” funding, but geothermal can actually be a single-family do it yourself project, given the right geology.
Energy independence is much like an alcoholic who keeps drinking for years, even when he knows he should quit. The first step of any successful program is to stop drinking .. overpriced, environmentally senseless oil, or alcohol … both are harmful wheh they become addictions.
December 31st, 2008 at 11:56 pm
[...] Philippines already has a world-class geothermal plant on Leyte (which even powers much of Cebu as well) and on Luzon. There may be others, and there ought to be many [...]