The renewable energy (RE) initiative continues to be strong as the government’s commitment to increasing the Philippines’ use of cleaner forms of power up to 35 percent or more has been extended by 2040, ten years further from the original 2030 target.
During the recent Green Energy Option Program (GEOP) in Bacolod City Monday, the National Renewable Energy Board (NREB) said they want to have a long-term outlook of the power mix development to drive the growing industry; this includes the national target RE share of 35 percent or more, which will mostly come from Negros island, SunStar Bacolod reports.
The Negros island has been christened by the Energy Department as the dominating advocate of clean energy and is poised to become an entirely “green” region by 2030, ten years earlier than the expected target year.
“Despite the extension of the 35 percent target for the entire country, Negros is still capable of becoming an entirely renewable island by 2030,” NREB chairman Jose Layug Jr. said, magnifying the local government and its partner investors’ ventures in the country’s RE movement are commendable.
Moreover, Layug earlier said that Negros’ participation in the 35 percent contribution to the energy mix will have an RE generating capacity of at least 300-MW in the 6,000-MW RE total output nationwide. Aside from abundant solar power, Negros is also being considered as the major location for other potential RE resources like hydro and biomass, Layug added.
There is already a growing pursuit of further developing RE in the region, in which a number of Negros ECs are assessing to establish RE generation plants, taking advantage of the island’s rivers and vast land areas for hydro and solar energy, respectively.
The DOE (Department of Energy) is also in full support of the Negros’ push in RE specialization by encouraging electric cooperatives (ECs) to invest in RE power plants, which is feasible through the National Electrification Administration to fund expenses for such projects or partnering with foreign or local stakeholders.
“The investment for RE is promising as we are already exiting the era of feed-in tariff and entering that of renewable portfolio standards,” Layug said.
“RE is cost-efficient than putting plants for diesel and coal,” he added.
