The Solar Power technology Support (SPOTS) Project to ARCs is an integrated social fund and agricultural support project of the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) funded by the Spanish Government through the 1997 RP-Spain MOU on financial cooperation. The Project is designed to complement existing government efforts in improving the socio-economic conditions of Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) in the un-energized and off-grid ARCs. It uses photovoltaic energy systems as enabling technology in the introduction of the other components such as agricultural and rural enterprise development and institutional development.

SPOTS is multi-agency undertaking by the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) as the lead agency and prime mover for agriculture, rural enterprise and institutional development, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Electrification Administration (NEA) as partner cooperating agencies for the identification, validation and approval of sites in coordination with rural electric cooperatives. view our project objecetive tree

Background and History

• February 1997 - The DAR-PDMS submitted to the DFA and NEDA PIS, ten proposals for development cooperation between the Government of the Philippines (GOP) and the Government of Spain (GOS)
• May 1997 - The DAR, NEDA and the Agencies Española Cooperacion Internacional (AECI) met to discuss the proposals. AECI expressed interest in funding the SPOTS project on a pilot scale.
• December 1997 - An inter-agency meeting included SPOTS in the list of project proposals to be endorsed during the RP-Spain 3rd Joint Commission Meeting.
• February 2, 1998 - A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on RP-Spain 3rd Joint Commission on Technical Cooperation was signed, after which the DAR-PDMS submitted to the NEDA the refined SPOTS feasibility Study.
• October 6, 1999 - The NEDA_ICC Cabinet Committee approved the financing under the 1997 MOU. As approved, the total project cost for both phase I and phase II is PhP2,854.80 million with GOP counterpart for PhP542 million.
• February 14, 2002 - The project was re-approved by NEDA-ICC Cabinet Committee during its meeting with an approved cost of US$64.773 million and GOP counterpart amounting to US$10,423 million. The SPOTS Project will be implemented in two phases. Phase I will cover 40 ARCs in Mindanao and the loan proceeds for this phase is estimated as US$25,188 million over a period of 18 months.
• August 8, 2002 - The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) released SPOTS Forward Obligation Authority (FOA) in the amount of Php3.2 billion.
• November 12, 2002 - The office of the President issued the Presidential Full Powers Authority to the DOF to negotiate with the Government of Spain and sign the loan for phase I in the amount of US$25.8 M.
• December 12, 2002 - The GOP and the GOS officially signed the loan agreement.
• February 20, 2003 - A favorable DOJ opinion on the DAR/BP Solar Contract was issued.
• March 10, 2003 - Finally, the DOF advice declared effective the loan agreement.
• March 28, 2003 - The DAR issued the Notice to Proceed (NOP) to BP Solar upon BP Solar's submission of the Inception Report and Work Plan. Subsequently, DAR released the amount of US$3.778 million or PhP196,467 million which comprise 15% of the total contract price.

OBJECTIVES

• Address rural poverty in the un-energized and off-grid ARCs by targeting specific photovoltaic (PV) application;
• Increase agricultural productivity and promote livelihood;
• Empower local communities and farmer's organizations in the selected ARCs;
• Apply solar energy technology as the enabling technology for sustainable development.

MAJOR COMPONENTS

The SPOTS project has three major components;

1. Agricultural Productivity & Agribusiness Development

   This component represents technical assistance and management support to provide opportunities for increased productivity in agriculture and additional sources of income from the development of agribusiness and non-farm related rural enterprises. It includes the introduction of appropriate agricultural technologies, farm and rural enterprise business planning and advisory services, identification and implementation of partnership with agribusiness enterprises, business and management training,management assistance, market linkages and market development and assistance o facilitate credit access from various applicable sources.

2. Solar Electrification

   The project will provide various solar packages that can supply the energy needs of (1) for agricultural productivity and agribusiness. (2) community facilitates such as health center , barangay hall, potable water supply, improvement/development and school building and (3) households for lighting and household based livelihood activities.

3. Institutional Development

   The project will build the capacity people's organizations in managing not only the solar energy systems but also the agriculture and rural enterprise development components of the project. This will involve an empowering process of capacity building to ensure effective and organized community and beneficiary participation at all phases of project implementation. The project will also be concerned in building the capacity of DAR staff and local government units (LGUs).

PROJECT FINANCING

The Spanish GGovernment will provide funds for the SPOTS Project under a Mixed Credit Facility. The total project cost for both Phase I and Phase II as re-approved by the NEDA-ICC Cabinet Committee in its meeting last February 14, 2002 amounts of US$10.423 M represents its government counterpart. The project cosk breakdown is as follows: