I hear your warning but I'm not sure what the connections is to the linked article. It is about solar but It's regarding a school engineering project built by students and cost 600-700 PHP per light.
I believe that although formally a building permit and electrical permit is needed for all solar installations, practically the majority of systems are installed without such permits unless people wish to apply for net-metering. Obviously, the rules for net-metering in this country are obsolete in the sense that for almost everyone who installs a system that includes batteries it does not make sense to do net-metering because you won't get paid for the electricity that is delivered back to the grid. All you get is credits. Before batteries became economical that worked because people would use up their credits after dark, but once your electricity bill is already (close to) zero because you have batteries those credits just sit there. It is time for the government to urgently consider changing these rules with regard to credits and make sure people actually get paid when providing electricity. And while they're at it, the application for net-metering should also be streamlined. Rather than forcing applicants to run from a to b to c to d to e in order to get all their "requirements" they should study how countries do it that actually would like their citizens to produce electricity for the grid (e.g. all you need to do in the Netherlands is register your installation online, and then apply for net-metering online. The rest of the process is done by the utility provider at their expense). But yeah, I know, dream on.
To clarify my previous post: With respect to not getting paid for credits, this is governed by a letter from the Energy Regulatory Commission, dated November 25 2013. The relevant part of the letter is Underlining is mine, and basically it is evident that while the rules don't forbid the DU (distribution utility) to pay the QE (qualifying enduser) for their credits, those rules also don't mandate such payments, and make payment dependent on an agreement reached between DU en QE. In other words, the DU (Noreco) can simply refuse to agree. Even if agreement can be reached about payment it will very likely only happen after considerable time has passed.
