EPHI Launches its Tidal In-Stream Energy Conversion Project bundled with the Nationwide Microgrid Program
June 14, 2022 – EPHI’s soft launching of the “Tidal In-stream energy Conversion power project” bundled with the “Nationwide Microgrid Program” and recharging Hydrogen Fuels in Capul Island in San Bernardino strait, and adjoining Islands in Northern Samar up to Calintaan Island in Matnog, Sorsogon; all first in the Philippines, sans palliatives and euphemisms, a genuine response to uplifting poverty in poorest hinterlands in the country.
Going to Capul is fulfillment of the mission to help the poorest of the poor escape from the unending vicious poverty cycle in Samar, in the Visayas, in the Philippines. Gunnar Myrdal’s “An Inquiry into the poverty of Nations,” taught us, where he cited Ragnar Nurske, an Estonian economist who espoused a balanced economy; offered breaking the cycle from resources within the economy.
In his balanced growth theory, “Mr. Nurkse believed that the subject of who should promote development does not concern economists. It is not Political will. It is an administrative problem. The crucial idea was that a large amount of well dispersed investment should be made in the economy, so that the market size expands and leads to higher productivity levels, increasing returns to scale and eventually the development of the country in question. However, most economists who favoured the balanced growth hypothesis believed that only the state has the capacity to take on the kind of heavy investments the theory propagates. Further, the gestation period of such lumpy investments is usually long and private sector entrepreneurs do not normally undertake such high risks.
In Mr. Antonio Ver’s speech, EPHI’s Co-Chairman and CEO, “I wanted to tell you about the barriers of development, the disappointments and frustrations we faced but I would rather speak of “mission accomplished” as we embark on the project’s tender in September for the selection of an Engineering-Procurement-
Having spent my career in energy development for more than 25 years (which I decided to take when my daughter was born in November 1996), I am assured we can succeed with colleagues and partners, investors and shareholders, and the men and women of the Renewable Energy Management Bureau who have persevered with us.
I am thankful to all of you, who attended today. You give us strength to carry on, and go forth; going into the next islands like Siquijor, Mindoro, Masbate, Catanduanes, Palawan and 12 more sites, and the next straits throughout the Philippines to raise the national Gross Domestic Product, reach far flung barangays and down to their sitios delivering electricity, education and public health awareness.”
