THE Energy Department is looking to stage two green energy (RE) auctions 'around the fourth quarter' of this year and another by the middle of 2025 as part of an ongoing push to increase the country's renewable power capacity.
THE Energy Department is looking to stage two green energy auctions 'around the fourth quarter' of this year and another by the middle of 2025 as part of an ongoing push to increase the country's renewable power capacity.
The Green Energy Auction Program , launched in 2021, aims to entice investments in renewable energy in support of a government plan to achieve a 35-percent RE capacity mix by 2035 and 50 percent by 2040.The first round was conducted in 2022 and the bulk of the 19 solar, wind, hydropower and biomass projects that were awarded are scheduled to be completed next year. GEA-2 followed in 2023, with 103 mostly solar power proposals named the winning bidders.GEA-3, announced in February this year, will focus on geothermal, impounding hydro and pumped-storage hydro and will also include run-of-river hydro. Based on the schedule released, the auction will be held next month, with the run-of-river hydro winners to be announced in September and the rest in December.'With regards to the timeline, GEAP 3 and 4 will be conducted by around the fourth quarter of 2024, but one of the most exciting green energy auctions will happen next year...,' Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevera told reporters on Wednesday.The fifth auction round, she added, will feature offshore wind, 'and we're pushing that to be done by the middle of the year.''GEAP 5 will not be about megawatts in terms of projects but in gigawatts instead,' Guevara continued.Details of the program are still being finalized, she said.Energy Regulatory Commission chairman and CEO Monalisa Dimalanta said that preparations for GEA-3 were on track but added that the reserve prices had yet to be determined.'We've been working on it, but we need to formalize the process because there will be public consultation for the rates, so there's a process that we have to go through. Moving forward, we will follow the DoE timetable in all the auctions,' Dimalanta said.Guevara said that 'for GEA-4, which is also happening this year, we will bid out RE plus energy storage systems. We are offering around 8,200 MW for this, but this capacity could be increased as well.'In another development, the Energy Department said that coal usage in the Philippines was relatively still very low in reaction to a recent report that the country's dependence on the fuel had exceeded that of China and Indonesia.The country joined the world's top 10 economies most dependent on coal-fired power, data from energy think tank Ember showed, with the share of coal in electricity generation up for the 15th straight year in 2023.Kosovo had the highest coal dependence in 2023, according to the data released by Ember, with 88.21 percent of its power coming from the polluting fuel. Mongolia, South Africa, India and Kazakhstan followed. The Philippines ranked 7th on the list.The Energy Department, however, said 'the power generation mix of the Philippines cannot be directly compared with large economies like China and Indonesia, particularly the share of coal in the power generation due to significant differences in demographic, economic, and energy profiles.'It noted that as of January 2024, China had an installed total coal power plant capacity of 1,136.7 gigawatts , Indonesia had 51.6 GW, while that of the Philippines was just 12.1 GW.The department admitted that coal still accounted for the largest share in the country's power generation mix but added that the Philippines' share of global emissions from coal was insignificant.'Again, while the Philippines relies heavily on coal-fired power generation, the absolute amount of generation and corresponding emissions are minimal as compared to those of China and Indonesia,' it said.'Therefore, the Philippines cannot be reasonably compared to these larger economies, which have totally different energy strategies and infrastructures adapted to their specific demographic and economic conditions.'
Energy Auctions To Be Held In 2024 2025
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