Philippines launches CFL bulb campaign

MANILA, Philippines, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- The Philippines has launched a compact fluorescent lamp national campaign aimed at making the country incandescent bulb-free by 2010 while reducing the country's fuel costs and carbon emissions.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said the shift to compact fluorescent lamps could help reduce the country's peak demand for power by 450 megawatts, easing the need to import energy sources by as much as $120 million annually.

Reyes said the Switch to CFLs campaign, launched during the weekend, will save the Philippines $100 million in fuel costs each year. It will also help reduce carbon emissions by 300,000 tons a year, he said, allowing the country to earn about 300,000 tons of certified emission-reduction credits annually.

The Philippines Department of Energy plans to distribute 13 million CFLs throughout the country in the coming months. CFLs used in the program have a lifespan of 10,000 hours, compared with the average incandescent bulb's life of about 800 hours.

Some 25 percent of the energy consumed by CFLs is converted to visible light, compared with only 5 percent for an incandescent lamp. Up to 95 percent of the energy emitted by incandescent lamps is heat.

Switch to CFLs, sponsored by the Philippine Energy Efficiency Project, is financed through a $30 million loan from the Asian Development Bank.

"This project shows how Filipinos and the world can benefit through such investments -- making the Philippines the first country in Asia to access carbon credits from a program like this," said Neeraj Jain, ADB country director for the Philippine country office, the Business Mirror reports.

Other initiatives planned under the country's Switch to CFLs project include retrofitting government office buildings and public lighting systems with other efficient lighting options, creating a lamp waste- management facility, establishing an energy-service company that will provide financial and technical support to companies planning to reduce energy consumption and a "green building" rating system.

On the global level, a U.N.-backed initiative to replace incandescent lamps with energy-saving bulbs was also launched Monday.

"This new project aims to accelerate growing national initiatives to replace old bulbs into a global one by overcoming market barriers in developing economies and by setting international energy and performance standards in order to build consumer confidence," U.N. Environment Program Executive Director Achim Steiner said in a release.

According to UNEP, 70 percent of lighting sales worldwide are for inefficient incandescent lamps. A shift to energy-efficient alternatives would cut the world's electricity demand for lighting by some 18 percent.

Global demand for artificial light is projected to be 80 percent higher by 2030, in large part due to the construction and operation of new buildings in developing economies.