MANILA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) — Fishing has been a lifeline for Alejandro Alcones for the past four decades, but he now fears his small boat may be replaced by a floating solar farm on the Philippines’ largest lake. Alcones is part of a group of fishermen opposed to the government’s plan to place solar panels atop Laguna de Bay, one of the country’s biggest sources of freshwater fish, as it looks for renewable energy sources to meet growing demand for power. “Laguna Lake gives life and income to fishermen like us who didn’t finish school.
It also gives many displaced workers here an alternative way to earn by fishing,” said Alcones, a 55-year-old father of two who lives near the lake. An archipelago of more than 7,000 islands, the Philippines is hampered by limited land resources as it pursues a target to produce half of its electricity from renewable sources by 2040, compared with just a fifth in 2021. Unlike traditional solar farms on land, floating photovoltaics — or solar panels installed on reservoirs, ponds and offshore waters — are an attractive alternative for fossil fuel-dependent countries with scarce land and high population density.
Last year, Indonesia opened Southeast Asia’s largest floating solar facility on a man-made reservoir. But these novel projects may compete with people who depend on fishing and agriculture, according to a January report by the Responsible Energy Initiative of Forum for the Future, a collective of nongovernment.