BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan announced that the local government is ready to bid out the solar power lighting and heating of the city’s Olympic-sized swimming pool located within the Baguio Athletic Bowl.
The local chief executive said the necessary documents for the noble environmentally-friendly project were already transmitted to the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) for the conduct of the public bidding to determine which solar power company will be able to provide the needed units of equipment to operate the swimming pool using solar power.
“There were numerous companies who conducted previous studies on the viability of the swimming pool to be operated through solar power to lessen our huge expenses in the heating up of the swimming pool, especially during competitions,” Domogan stressed.
He added that operating the swimming pool’s heating system through solar power will definitely make the facility one of the major pilot areas for solar power, which is one of the preferred types of renewable energy.
According to him, numerous representatives of solar power companies had been visiting the local government offering their own version of the solar panel to help popularize solar power in the city and he had been requesting the proponents to make a study on how to heat the swimming pool using available solar panels before shifting to the lighting of public buildings using the same renewable energy, which will help the government save on high energy expenses.
He underscored that once popularized in the city and the region as a whole, thousands of households will be encouraged to patronize solar power products that guarantee increased savings on expensive power consumption, not only of their houses but also their business establishments, among others.
He expressed optimism that the BAC will be able to qualify complying and responsive solar power companies for the local government to be able to efficiently implement its solar power project which had been stagnant for several years now and to compel the public to embrace renewable sources of energy instead of the traditional power sources, which is allegedly destructive to the state of the environment.
He added that the success of the local government in operating the swimming pool through solar power could be replicated in public buildings and could help make the city reliant on solar power in the future, depending on the accessories that will be put in place.
The city’s swimming pool is located outdoors and takes more time to heat up. It is a venue for swimming competitions not only in the local level but also in the regional, national and international levels.
He appealed the concerned sectors to support the endeavor and to replicate the success of the city’s swimming pool solar power project, to help contribute to efforts by both the local and national government and improve the state of the environment in their areas of jurisdiction for the benefit of the present and future generations of residents wanting to live in this mountain resort city.
By Dexter A. See
