The Department of Science and Technology (DOST) said Wednesday, March 9, that it is eyeing the rollout of e-vehicles to mitigate the impact of potential fuel shortage.
Citing the war in Ukraine and its impact on the rising prices of fuel, DOST Secretary Fortunato "Boy" de la Pena said they met with fellow DOST officials to "take a look at what we have that are already available" after the biggest yet oil price increase took effect on Tuesday, March 8.
Among those is the use of e-vehicles.
"We suggest that the government rolls out e-mobility. E-vehicles are already commercially available, but the main constraint that we see is the charging station infrastructure," de la Pena said.
He added that the DOST is currently supporting the development of a commercialized fast-charging system to speed up the rollout of e-vehicles.
READ MORE: DOST bats for adoption of e-mobility
De la Pena also batted for the deployment of energy monitoring application and network (DEMAND), a cloud-based energy monitor and eSensor device that provide smart, comprehensive, and easy-to-use energy monitoring and management solutions to deliver data in real-time to smartphones or computers.
"There are many projects that we have already completed and we are still doing, but we chose energy conservation as a very important suggestion which we think can really help us in mitigating the impact of fuel shortage," he noted.
Project DEMAND aims to develop energy efficiency and conservation programs and management practices for implementation by government agencies.
Meanwhile, the DOST-Forest Product Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI) has developed charcoal briquetting technologies, such as the hydraulic press type briquettor using wood waste from lumber, grasses, bamboo, and coco shell for cooking and household utilities.
"I just asked how much the price of LPG we're using... the price that we pay already getting close to P1,100 and that's really a big jump from the usual P800 amount per tank that we pay so we're also giving safer alternatives," de la Pena added.