Fayette C. Riñen
CEBU, May 8 (PIA) -- The use of renewable energy (RE) resources is
slowly gaining ground as the Department of Energy (DOE) reported that more and
more projects are either being explored or ready for commission to optimize the
use of RE resources.
DOE- Renewable Energy Management Bureau Director Mario Marasigan
during a multi-sectoral forum on RE in Cebu yesterday said there are over
1,000 RE projects in the country that are either for construction or endorsed
or already being utilized.
In a presentation on the Philippine RE Updates, the major
accomplishment DOE highlighted is the completion and commissioning of 443.87 MW
of RE facilities nationwide.
“Emerging RE technology in the Philippines are into solar and
wind” that are now mostly being eyed by RE investors, said Marasigan to over
100 participants composed of students and representatives from the private
and government sector as well as from media.
Marasigan said the DOE aggressively campaigns for its
BiGSHOW program which is an acronym for biomass and bio-fuels, geothermal,
solar, hydropower, ocean and wind to attract more investments in the RE sector.
The implementation of the Feed-In Tariffs (FITs) system however,
is expected to accelerate RE development in the country for electricity produced
from wind, solar, ocean, hydropower and biomass. Under the FITs system, energy
companies and RE developers will profit for every kilowatt of clean power they
sell on top of the market rate as stipulated under RA 9513 or the Renewable
Energy Act of 2008.
Marasigan said the FITs system has a fixed tariff rate for at
least 12 years and this resulted to a massive development of renewable projects
“as we see a rise in wind and solar farm projects.”
As of March 2015, the FITs Monitoring Board recorded 15 RE
projects with certificates of endorsement to the Energy Regulatory Commission,
said Marasigan adding that the 15 projects are divided into three projects each
for hydro, wind and solar while the remaining six projects are on biomass with
a total capacity of 322.25 MW.
The DOE official further said almost 3,000 MW of RE projects are
under construction or still in the making or already installed as of March,
this year which included 15 projects for wind, 13 for solar, seven for
geothermal and hydropower as well.
Under the National Renewable Energy Plan, the government has set a
timeframe from 2011 to 2030 in its target for substantial delivery of RE.
The mutli-sectoral forum, an undertaking of the DOE was part
of the agency's information and education campaign on RE Updates and
conducted in cooperation with the Philippine Information Agency 7 and the
University of San Jose Recoletos which was also the venue of the
activity. (mbcn/fcr/PIA7)