THE total power generation capacity saved from this year’s Earth Hour, or one-hour switch-off, stood at 62.69 megawatts (MW).
The figures are lower than last year’s 65.32MW, mainly because the heat index climbed to as high as 40 degrees compared to last year, the Department of Energy (DOE) said on Monday.
The largest savings this year came from Luzon with 33.29 MW, followed by 20.5 MW from Mindanao, and 8.9 MW from Visayas.
Last Saturday, the Philippines turned their lights off for an hour between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., a symbolic demonstration of unity to reverse nature loss and achieve a climate-resilient future.
“The electricity demand reduction for that period alone is a testament that collectively, we could generate a great impact on our daily energy consumption.
This also illustrates how purposeful behavior could achieve something big and worthy. Imagine when individuals, businesses, government, and communities unite not only during Earth Hour but in making energy conservation their everyday way of life, the overall impact would be even much bigger,” DOE Secretary Raphael Lotilla said.
The DOE likewise invited the public to be in solidarity with the rest of the world from the comfort and safety of their homes by switching off their non-essential lights.
“Let us help sustain the momentum by simply consistently practicing energy conservation measures at home, offices, communities, and businesses from switching off non-essential lights to choosing more energy efficient appliances, equipment and machines.
These are simple yet valuable actions that we can do easily not only for our planet but more especially during periods of high demand such as this summer season,” added Lotilla.
The Earth Hour is an annual symbolic lights-out event that started in Sydney in 2007 to work together on the planet’s biggest environmental challenges. It has grown to be the largest grassroots movements to reach more people around the world to work together and focus on climate and climate biodiversity actions.
