The chief of Corporate Communications of geothermal power leader Energy Development Corp. urged public information officers and tourism officers in Region VII to help spread awareness and educate the public about renewable energy.
Ricky Carandang was one of the guest speakers on Wednesday during the four-day convention of the Regional Association of Development Information Officers in Region VII (RADIO-7).
Around 120 public information officers and tourism officers from Central Visayas, comprising Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, and Negros Oriental, gathered in Dumaguete to focus on responsible communication and crisis communication, among others.
Carandang shared his experience with EDC, especially on promoting renewable energy, particularly geothermal energy, to the PIOs and tourism officers, noting that “unfortunately, not too many people are aware of renewable energy”.
“There’s a lot of support on renewable energy, but when you think about renewable energy, people talk about solar and wind,” Carandang told reporters in an interview Tuesday evening.
Carandang pointed out the limitations of wind and solar energy as opposed to geothermal energy even though they are renewable and clean.
The problem is that if there is less sunlight and less wind, then there would be intermittent supply of solar and wind power, and people don’t know that “we have a supply of renewable energy that is not intermittent, and that is geothermal”, he said.
Geothermal energy operates 24/7 and can run baseload, can compete with coal power, and does not get interrupted, Carandang explained.
“The irony is that we are one of the biggest producers of geothermal (energy) in the world and in the Philippines, and yet awareness of geothermal is so low”, he noted.
Carandang said he hopes that information officers would have a greater appreciation of renewable energy and geothermal energy.
It’s not a fad to advertise energy because it is a commodity and most people don’t care where they get it, whether from coal, natural gas or renewables, but EDC has tried to “differentiate our energy from others”, according to Carandang.
“We are branding our energy 24/7 and I think we are the first in the country to do that and we want to show that to the information officers”, he added.
Another notable speaker during the RADIO-7 convention was Ces Oreña-Drilon, a noted broadcast journalist of a national television network, who spoke on Tuesday about crisis communication, among others. (With reports from Judy Flores Partlow/PNA)