MANILA, Philippines — Nearly nine in 10 Filipinos are considering installing solar panels at home, but concerns about potential damage, high upfront costs and unreliable weather conditions remain major barriers.
A report by market research technology firm Agile Data Solutions Inc. showed that 87 percent of Filipinos may put up solar power systems amid soaring electricity prices and recurring outages.
The study, which covered 3,000 respondents nationwide, was conducted on April 23, before a string of yellow and red alerts triggered rotational brownouts across Luzon and the Visayas.
The findings indicate that the recent outages did not spark interest in solar energy from scratch. Rather, they intensified the urgency among an already receptive public considering the shift to solar power.
Lowering electricity bills emerged as the main driver for the solar switch, cited by 33.59 percent of respondents.
This was followed by the need for a more reliable and uninterrupted power supply (16.75 percent), reduced reliance on the grid (15.76 percent) and environmental concerns (14.78 percent).
Notably, 18 percent of Filipinos said they always experience outages, while another 49 percent encounter them occasionally.
Power grids in Luzon and the Visayas were placed under red alert for three straight days this month due to sustained high electricity demand and the shutdown of major coal-fired facilities.
The alert level, issued when power supply can no longer meet consumer demand, led to temporary service interruptions across both regions.
Against this backdrop, the Agile Data study found that 82.91 percent of Filipinos intend to adopt solar power within the next one to five years.
Despite the growing interest, several concerns continue to slow wider adoption.
In particular, around 12 percent of respondents are worried about the vulnerability of solar panels during typhoons.
Others also cited high installation costs (11.65 percent), dependence on weather conditions (11.04 percent), expensive and limited battery storage options (9.05 percent) and maintenance concerns (8.56 percent) as key barriers to the solar shift.
“Filipinos are not waiting to be convinced that solar is useful. They are waiting for solar to become affordable enough to act on. The demand is there; the challenge is access,” Agile Data said.
Global energy think tank Ember, meanwhile, estimated that households can now recover solar installation costs in just 3.1 years, down from about four years previously.
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