DoE linking developers, investors to hike RE investments

The Department of Energy is establishing a direct line between foreign investors and local partners to simplify investment in the country's renewable energy sector.

Energy Secretary Raphael Perpetuo Lotilla said Wednesday that the agency’s move responds to the “heightened enthusiasm from international investors” to unlock the vast potential of RE sources in the Philippines.

“We are linking them with financing institutions, development organizations, concerned government institutions, and engineering, procurements, and construction companies for potential partnerships and access to financing,” Lotilla said.

“To meet our energy transition goal, we are utilizing this platform where participants can identify potential business partners, investors, expertise, technologies, or business strengths,” he added.

Lotilla also pointed out that the DoE seeks to better understand the challenges in implementing RE projects to help address investors and developers' concerns.

As of the end of January, the DoE has awarded 1,267 projects with RE Service Contracts with a total potential capacity of around 129,000 megawatts, or MW covering various technologies.

The Philippines is one of the emerging investment destinations in the power sector as evident in the BloombergNEF Climate 2023 report, which ranked the country among the top 5 most attractive emerging markets for investments in the power sector.

After making substantial progress in transitioning to RE over the last two years, the Philippines moved up six spots to No. 4, following India, China, and Chile.

The report stated that the Philippines stood out as one of the few that have implemented auctions, feed-in-tariffs, net metering schemes, tax incentives, and a strong target for RE.

As outlined in the 2023-2050 Philippine Energy Plan, the DoE targets a 35 percent RE share in power generation by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.

Recently, the DoE announced its plan to conduct a third round of GreenEnergy Auction, or GEA-3, this year to increase RE utilization nationwide.

The DoE said the GEA-3 specifically targets Non-Feed-In-Tariff, or Non-FIT, Eligible RE Technologies.

These include geothermal, impounding hydro, and pumped-storage hydro under Department Circular No. DC2023-10-0029, which provides specific auction policies and guidelines for these Non-FIT RE technologies in the Green EnergyAuction Program.

The GEA-3 will also include run-of-river Hydro, which is a FIT-Eligible RE technology.

The DoE estimated that the auction could generate 699 megawatts, or MW, from impounding hydro; 3,120 MW from Pumped-Storage Hydro; and 380 MW from Geothermal.