A new dawn

Whenever Danielle Del Rosario is on an airplane descending over any one of the many airports in the Philippines, one thing stands out to her most of all – the absence of solar panels on the roofs of the houses.

As the CEO of PHINMA Solar Energy Corporation, a specialist in solar power, that represents a pretty exciting opportunity.

“In the energy space, there’s really going to be a shift out of fossil fuels,” she tells The CEO Magazine. “There’s going to be a rapid adoption of renewables, particularly solar, in a country like ours. Because we have plenty of sun and it’s free.”

Nationally, there is around a 1.8-gigawatt capacity for roof-mounted solar renewable energy and Del Rosario is a firm believer that solar is the way to go.

“But to protect the system, to protect the transmission infrastructure, it should be coupled with energy storage systems,” she adds. “This is something we’re actively looking at and that will be a big disruptor in the energy space and in the country.

“Worldwide we’ve seen the adoption already in Australia, the Middle East and now even places like Singapore that have shifted or added to their reliance on liquefied natural gas, given what’s happening in the Middle East.”

The company is also a major player in the construction space, where it is continually innovating new materials that make it easier to build, according to Del Rosario.

“Right now, anyone who’s building a project is very reliant on their contractor,” she explains. “People aren’t very informed about their options or they think there’s no choice, that it’s just traditional cement and steel that you could use, or maybe steel and glass.

“My vision is to bring in energy-efficient building materials that are easy to use. It’s almost like using LEGO that is also energy efficient, highly durable and convenient to install. So once you build your home, you build your business with superior insulation using insulated roofing or panels or even something else – I won’t stop at insulated panels.”

Del Rosario expects her bold vision to be further fueled by the rise of a more knowledgeable customer who can make their own informed choices.

“They can be involved in the design and in bringing down costs for total value optimization,” she predicts.

Diverse talent pool

In addition to these disruptors to the more traditional methods of building, Del Rosario also highlights diminished reliance on construction workers due to a shortage as skilled Filipino workers head overseas. However, she is not overly concerned for Union Insulated Panel Corporation and PHINMA Solar Energy Corporation, proud as she is of both companies’ cohorts of talented engineers.

“We attract them with the vision of what we’re doing and the opportunity that they wouldn’t necessarily experience in other companies in the Philippines, maybe even abroad, to handle and lead such large projects right away,” she explains.

“I can see the sparkle in their eyes because we give them the opportunity to grow and learn. Even if the work is hard, they’re excited and proud to see a project come to life from the ground up.”

Efficiency is the name of the game, however. So while having top talent is crucial, so is keeping teams lean.

“We always aspire to work smart as we work hard,” she stresses. “We’re using a lot of tools and we’re trying also to adopt more tech so that the requirement of labor is reduced and also the work is smarter, more optimized.”

This is evidenced by the efficiency of the new insulated panel production line. With a team of just six people, the company can produce 1 million square meters to 1.8 million square meters of panels in a year.

“In terms of designing solar installations, we’re using a lot of technology tools,” Del Rosario explains. “We use drones to measure and survey roof areas and land so that we can quickly detail our design.

“When it comes to monitoring usage, we’re using a lot of apps and software so that it’s much easier for our clients to work with us, check on their systems themselves and really enjoy the benefits of solar energy.”

Building a nation

This culture of making lives better plays out throughout both companies, alongside the notion of serving the nation. In fact, PHINMA’s original foray into realm of insulated panels stems from the desire to deliver food security, according to Del Rosario.

“If we look at the food statistics, around 30–40 percent of produce is wasted on site at the farms simply because there’s nowhere to put it,” she says.

“Can you imagine if we can reduce the waste and bring back that 30–40 percent value back to the farmers, back to the country? Farmers are the least economically rewarded group.”

Not just the farmers, but also the fishermen who until recently lacked ice plants to store the fish that they catch every day.

“So they’re forced to sell it, eat it, trade it or preserve it as salted fish – or a lot of it goes to waste,” she adds.

Cold storage facilities designed and built by Union Insulated Panel Corporation can house meat, cheese, seafood, vegetables and fruit – not only through freezing but also chilling.

“This is our way of solving the crisis of food security, but we’re just beginning,” Del Rosario says. “I’m actually in the process of bringing in containerized cold storage – cold storage boxes. They look like the cargo boxes that go on ships, loaded on trucks, but they’re insulated and they run like freezers.

“I go the extra mile by putting solar on them so they can go into off-grid areas.”

One such solution is being put in place in a fishing village in Palawan where there is no electricity or fresh water. Another is being placed in a farming community in Benguet.

“These are the projects that really excite me because we’re going down to the grassroots level,” Del Rosario reveals.

Another project using insulated panels is being carried out in partnership with the Department of Education, which put out a call to action to build classrooms using prefabricated materials to hasten their construction.

“That’s just the tip of the iceberg of how we’re thinking in terms of nation building,” she says.

Solar momentum

Del Rosario is also in talks with the government about the promotion of rooftop solar, with that side of the business making significant strides, aligned by the Department of Energy’s aim of achieving 35 percent renewable energy by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.

“We were the first company to be awarded with the green energy auction program for rooftop solar,” she reveals. “By around September of this year, we’ll be connecting our first site for around 6.9 megawatts of solar rooftop with a green energy tariff from the government. So a lot of it is really helping the country achieve energy self-reliance.”

But a big part of this is growing awareness among the people of the Philippines around how solar can enhance their lives. It’s a mission Del Rosario tackles by putting boots on the ground, meeting the company’s clients and customers.

“I listen to what their problems are, what they are looking for and what improvements they need. And it always makes me curious and aspire to find and fill in those needs,” she says.

In addition to this, Del Rosario says it’s important to work closely with technical suppliers to learn about what solutions are already available so they can be swiftly deployed.

“Many things are actually already available in different countries and from different suppliers,” she points out. “Sometimes, it’s a matter of just looking beyond what we’re already doing, which is where many get stuck.”

Events are another cornerstone of the education strategy, with Del Rosario frequently speaking at conferences, specifically around sustainable solutions, food security and energy reliance.

“It’s not so much a hard marketing approach, but more keeping that conversation alive,” she says. “I’m also very much involved with industry groups in business and also for advocacy to make sure that we listen.

“It’s not enough just stay in your small corner and keep on doing what you’re doing because the world is changing so fast while technology is also evolving so quickly.

“So it’s really a matter of selecting which problems we think we can solve well. It’s knowing where we have a right to play and then hopefully we can dominate.”