SOCIAL IMPACT
WeGen hopes to reduce poverty through increased household savings and local livelihoods, building disaster resiliency through decentralized solar generation, addressing climate change mitigation and adaptation, creating conditions for sustained peace, and contributing holistically to an improved quality of life. WeGen’s planned installations will require approximately over 2.0 million person-days to be sourced substantially from the unemployed or underemployed in poor communities suffering from adverse impacts of climate change, lack of access to government services, or armed conflict.
INTEGRATED POWER COMPANY
WeGen is not a company that just sells solar panels but intends to operate as a transformative enterprise that provides a holistic energy platform through integrated solar energy systems, storage, and software to develop clean, affordable, and smart solutions to market renewable energy. WeGen was founded by Michael Saalfeld, a visionary German industrialist, global innovator, and a leading proponent of DER. He had previously founded LichtBlick SE, Germany’s first and largest independent provider of green power that recently merged with Eneco, the third largest utility in the Netherlands. Through its cutting-edge software, SchwarmDirigent, LichtBlick has enabled customers to create profits from optimized energy assets while contributing to an efficient and reliable grid. WeGen is part of Mr. Saalfeld’s Merica Group of Companies and is at the forefront of its Southeast Asian operations. Through efforts in the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore, WeGen, its subsidiaries, and affiliates hope to spread the use of clean energy and change the renewable energy landscape in the region.
WEGEN’S CORE BUSINESS
WeGen works with communities, local governments, and other stakeholders to pursue socio-economic development, expanded livelihood options, poverty eradication, and climate justice through increased access to clean and distributed rooftop solar energy, to be combined with battery storage and energy management through intelligent software. Moreover, WeGen also aims to educate its customers with the maximization of their solar photovoltaic (PV) rooftop systems and thus, induce a change in behavior to make the best use of their systems.
This is especially critical in the Philippines where power rates, generated predominantly from fossil fuels, are among the highest in Southeast Asia, and where over 10 million Filipinos still live without access to electricity, mostly in poor, remote, island locations considered unviable by most private energy companies. Where such communities have electricity, it is often limited and diesel-based, subsidized by the national government and ratepayers at a cost of around $200M per year. WeGen aims to make clean and renewable energy available anytime, anywhere, for everyone.
MEMORANDA OF AGREEMENT WITH CATHOLIC DIOCESES
In late 2017, WeGen started to strengthen its relations with churches throughout the Philippines by entering into a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with each arch/diocese and guided by Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ encyclical, On Care for Our Common Home. Laudato Si’ recognizes the disastrous effects of climate change and calls humanity toward renewable energy and ecological conversion.
The first MOA was signed with the Diocese of Maasin under Bishop Precioso Cantillas, S.D.B., D.D., in August 2017. With the signing of this integral agreement, the diocese began its journey towards carrying out the essence of the encyclical Laudato Si’: all institutions must comprehensively combat climate change, support renewable energy, and eradicate energy poverty.
As of May 2019, 62 MOAs have been signed with arch/dioceses around the Philippines. Efforts are ongoing in identifying and installing pilot projects in each diocese, which will then serve as examples of WeGen’s commitment to empowering consumers starting with pillars of communities in the country.
KAHAYAG SA PAMILACAN (“LIGHT IN PAMILACAN”)
For off-grid projects, WeGen chose to pilot a solar+storage project with a 39 kWp solar PV rooftop installation and 153.6 kWh battery storage to provide daytime electricity for the island community. This installation is situated atop the Pamilacan National High School in Pamilacan, an island to the south of Bohol that is home to over 330 families. Previously, the island had access to diesel generated electricity from 4:00 p.m. to midnight only. Students did not have electricity for daytime classes and were unable to use computers at the school. The local fishermen could only sell fish catch from the same day and anything that remained unsold was prone to spoilage.
In May 2017, WeGen started the installation of the solar+storage project that would eventually provide daytime electricity from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm. This project also hybridized the National Power Corporation (NPC) diesel gensets that enabled the transition to battery storage. WeGen hopes that the system will hopefully be expanded in the future to completely displace the fossil-fueled gensets and allow the island to operate entirely with clean energy.
WeGen’s solar PV rooftop project that now provides 24/7 electricity has improved access to education, health services, and livelihood. The fisherfolk there who were trained by WeGen to assist as solar installers have now been contracted as organic WeGen employees and are currently installing solar panels on diocesan rooftops elsewhere. In places such as Mindanao and other conflict-affected areas, similar projects will hopefully contribute to economic stability and improved security, which in turn will have positive impacts on peace negotiations and community development.
With the help of impact investors, WeGen aims to replicate and improve the Pamilacan model in other islands in the Philippines that are greatly in need of access to electricity through clean and renewable energy.
WeGen Distributed Energy Philippines Holdings Corporation
Units 2802D & 2803A
West Tower
Philippine Stock Exchange Cntr Exchange Road, Ortigas Center
Brgy. San Antonio, Pasig City Philippines 1605 +632.304.6600 inquiries@wegen-energy.com www.wegen-energy.com
For inquiries: WeGen's Vice President for Strategic Relations
Mr. Charlie Ayco
charlie.ayco@wegen-energy.com