The Philippines is embarking on an ambitious transition to clean energy, with the goal of attaining 50-percent renewable energy mix by 2040 that would require investments of $153 billion.
The Department of Energy aims to achieve energy savings on oil products, 10-percent electric vehicle penetration in road transport, advanced and interoperable information and communications technology in the energy chain and a resilient and climate-proof energy infrastructure.
It said major investments are needed to realize the targets. Bulk of the investments will be spent in the power sector for the construction of new power plants amounting to $115.3 billion, including $94.3 billion for renewable energy and 21 billion for conventional power projects.
About $6.97 billion investments are needed for transmission projects.
Meanwhile, investments in the upstream sector will require about $10.05 billion for oil and gas exploration and development; $13.2 billion for coal exploration and production; and $510 million for renewable energy (pre-development activities).
Investments in the downstream energy sector focuses on oil distribution and import terminals with investments of about $2.94 billion, biofuels production at $2.38 billion and liquefied natural gas terminal with $1.78 billion.
“We will continue to work on long-term solutions in accordance with the clear goals set by the President to develop indigenous sources of energy, particularly renewables. We commit to pursue our mission and respond to emerging energy challenges and issues to ensure sustainable, stable, secure, accessible, and reasonably priced energy,” Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said.
Solar projects
Under the 2020 power generation mix, RE share was only 21.2 percent. The DOE wants to increase this to 50 percent by 2040.
It intends to bring down the share of coal in the power mix to 23.1 percent by 2040 from 57.2 percent in 2022. The share of natural gas is expected to rise to 26.7 percent from 19.2 percent, while biomass is seen to go down to 4.4 percent from 10.6 percent.
As part of the target, oil-based power plants will have a very minimal share in the power mix by 2040 from 2.4 percent in 2020.
In terms of power generation capacity, theRE is forecast to grow to 73,866 megawatts under the DOE’s clean energy scenario for 2040 from 7,617 MW in 2020.
Solar will dominate the clean energy scenario by 2040, with a capacity of 45,118 MW, up from 1,019 MW in 2020.
Hydro capacity will rise to 16,397 MW from 3,779 MW; wind to 11,387 MW from 443 MW; biomass to 486 MW from 447 MW; and geothermal to 480 MW from 1,928 MW.
The shares of coal and oil-based plants are expected to go down to 2,641 MW from 10,944 MW and from 4,237 MW to 381 MW, respectively.
The share of natural gas will increase to 15,430 MW from 3,453 MW.
RE programs
The DOE lined up several plans and programs to help boost RE development. These include the renewable energy portfolio standards which require electricity suppliers to source an agreed portion of their supply from eligible RE facilities and the Green Energy Auction Program, which sets the framework for the facilitation of immediate and timely investment for new and additional RE capacities.
Other programs are the Green Energy Option Program, which provides end-users the option to choose RE sources as their source of energy; RE market rules, which establishes the market for the trading of RE certificates between and among trade participants; and open and competitive selection process, which facilitates project development by offering well-characterized RE sites to project developers.
Also included are the Renewable Energy Trust Fund that finances research, development and promotion of widespread and productive RE systems.