The USAID-NREL Partnership Accelerates the Philippines’ Clean Energy Transition (Text Version)
This is the text version of a video about how the USAID-NREL partnership is accelerating the Philippines' clean energy transition. Energy experts from the Philippines traveled to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop a transmission planning process to meet clean energy targets and scale-up renewable energy in the Philippines.
Text Version:
Video opens with a shot of a group of people standing in front of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. Text on screen reads: The USAID-NREL Partnership Accelerates the Philippines’ Clean Energy Transition
Video shows three men sitting at a table in front of laptop computers.
Jennifer Leisch: For almost a decade…
Video cuts to a meeting room where a group of people are sitting around a long table and holding a discussion.
Jennifer Leisch: …USAID and NREL have been partnering to bring best practices,
Video cuts to a man standing at a whiteboard leading a discussion. The whiteboard shows writing about capacity expansion models.
Jennifer Leisch: …tools, resources, and even technical assistance…
Video cuts back to people at the table.
Jennifer Leisch: …to our developing country partners…
Jennifer Leisch, Program Lead and Partnership Manager, USAID, appears on screen.
Jennifer Leisch: …helping them scale up renewable energy and other advanced energy technologies.
Text on screen reads: The USAID-NREL Partnership welcomed energy experts from the Philippines to NREL for a month-long research exchange.
Video cuts to a man writing on a whiteboard.
Hanzel Cubangbang: During my college days, I read a lot of papers from NREL…
Hanzel Cubangbang, Principal Electrical Engineer, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, appears on screen.
Hanzel Cubangbang: …and it's a dream come true for me, to be here at NREL, meeting the experts that have written those papers.
Text on screen reads: The group worked collaboratively on a proactive transmission planning process that will enable the Philippines to meet their ambitious clean energy targets.
Noriel Reyes, Senior Science Research Specialist, Department of Energy – Philippines, appears on screen.
Noriel Reyes: Currently, the Philippines is focusing on developing renewable energy because we want to achieve that self-reliance…
Video cuts to a wind farm.
Noriel Reyes: in terms of having those indigenous resources tapped…
Noriel Reyes appears on screen.
Noriel Reyes: …and lessen our dependence on fossil fuels.
Text on screen: Renewable energy resources are abundant in the Philippines; however, many of the best sites are located in areas far from demand centers.
Text on screen: Planning and developing the transmission systems needed to access these areas can take years.
Text on-screen: Fortunately, there is a solution.
Text on-screen: The competitive renewable energy zone (CREZ) process helps efficiently connect areas with high-quality renewable energy resources to the power grid.
Nathan Lee, Researcher – Power Sector Planning, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, appears on screen.
Nathan Lee: Ultimately, the CREZ process in the Philippines will inform their transmission development planning process…
Video cuts to close-up of people sitting in a meeting room.
Nathan Lee: …and allow them to utilize the highest-quality indigenous renewable energy resources in their country.
Text on-screen: So, what makes an area a CREZ?
- Abundant renewable energy resources.
- Suitable terrain and land-use designations
- Project developer interest.
Video cuts to a man standing and pointing at writing on a whiteboard.
Hanzel Cubangbang: So basically, those CREZ will aid us…
Hanzel Cubangbang appears on screen.
Hanzel Cubangbang: …in proactively planning transmission development for renewable energy in the Philippines.
Text on-screen: The group worked side by side with NREL experts on key transmission system models used in the Philippines.
Video cuts to four men sitting around a table in a meeting room and talking.
Ana Dyreson: So, in the models they looked at the transmission development plans that they already have underway…
Ana Dyreson, Postdoctoral Researcher, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, appears on screen.
Ana Dyreson: …and then while they were here, we integrated the renewable energy zones with those transmission development plans and so, really seeing how the renewable energy Growth…
Video cuts to a map of the Philippines showing PV-multi-year mean net capacity factor, by color, around the country.
Ana Dyreson: …would overlay with the transmission development that's planned…
Video cuts to a map of the Philippines showing wind multi-year mean net capacity factors, by color, around the country. Offshore areas are included up to a depth of 20m, subject to the same wind capacity factor criteria.
Ana Dyreson: …I think is probably one of the most valuable things, along with just
Ana Dyreson appears on screen.
Ana Dyreson: …working on the models themselves.
Nathan Lee appears on screen.
Nathan Lee: It was a real pleasure hosting…
Video cuts to a meeting room with five men sitting around a table looking at laptop computers.
Nathan Lee: …such a fantastic group of modelers…
Video cuts to close-up of two of the men in the meeting room.
Nathan Lee: …from the Philippines who are willing to give up one month of their time…
Video cuts to over-the-shoulder shot of one of the men at his laptop.
Nathan Lee: …this summer to come and visit NREL's campus. It was a real technical exchange…
Video cuts to two of the men in the meeting room who are talking.
Nathan Lee: …in that not only were we supporting the CREZ process in the Philippines…
Video cuts to a close-up profile shot of one of the men in the meeting room.
Nathan Lee: …but also learning a lot about the Philippines power system and their planning challenges.
Ana Dyreson appears on screen.
Ana Dyreson: So, to me, it was really cool just to work with folks that actually operate power systems and have a real feeling for what something means on a certain line…
Video cuts to four men sitting around a table in a meeting room.
Ana Dyreson: …at a certain node in their system.
Text on-screen: The exchange allowed the group to collaborate with NREL's leading transmission planning experts and return home with innovative modeling capabilities to tackle the CREZ challenge.
Ana Dyreson appears on screen.
Ana Dyreson: The hope is—and I think their plan is—that this is really a jumpstart on integrating their models and using their models in the CREZ process and so now that they've got this work underway they'll be able to incrementally add to it. Add new scenarios, update new scenarios based on new information…
Video cuts to whiteboard with writing on it.
Ana Dyreson: …and hopefully, that will be a relatively easy undertaking compared to what it would have been a month ago.
Text on-screen: The group is now equipped with the tools to advance the Philippines' clean energy transition.
Video cuts to two men talking at a table in a meeting room.
Noriel Reyes: We were able to talk to a lot of experts and exchange ideas…
Noriel Reyes appears on screen.
Noriel Reyes: …that we can bring home in our country in the Philippines and also…
Video cuts to over-the-shoulder shot of a man sitting in a meeting room.
Noriel Reyes: …share it with others in the field that we are in.
Jennifer Leisch appears on screen.
Text on screen: To learn more about the USAID-NREL Partnership, visit our website at nrel.gov/usaid-partnership
Jennifer Leisch: We hope to continue working with partners all across the globe to bring these practices to a wider audience and allow them to access the technical expertise within the DOE labs.
Logos for USAID, NREL, RE Explorer, Greening the Grid, I-JEDI, and the Resilient Energy Platform appear on screen.
Text on screen: nrel.gov/usaid-partnership
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