The Department of Energy (DOE) has included Shell Energy Philippines (SEPh) and Energy Development Corporation (EDC) subsidiary Green Core Geothermal, Inc. (GCGI) in its Green Energy Option Program (GEOP), bringing the number of participants to 12.
SEPh is the unit of the Shell companies in the Philippines that aims to provide cleaner energy options. It currently hosts a solar farm, which powers Shell’s former refinery in Tabangao, Batangas City, which is being converted into an oil import terminal.
It was also announced recently that SEPh would source electricity from Citicore Power, Inc’s solar farm in Mariveles, Bataan. A Dutch court likewise ordered Shell recently to cut on carbon emissions by 45% come 2030, as it was found to be partly responsible for climate change.
In a report by BusinessWorld, meanwhile, EDC said GCGI will be allotting over 200 megawatts (MW) for the GEOP. Fellow subsidiary Bacman Geothermal, Inc., which was earlier included in the GEOP, will allocate 130MW for the program. First Gen Energy Solutions rounds up the Lopez-led firms in the GEOP.
Launched in 2018, the GEOP complies with Section 9 of Republic Act 9513 or the Renewable Energy Act of 2008. It acts as a voluntary mechanism that allows contestable consumers to source their power supply from qualified retail energy suppliers (RES) that source electricity from renewables.
Aboitiz Power Corporation still leads the list of GEOP participants with five, namely: Aboitiz Energy Solutions, Adventenergy, Inc., Prism Energy, SN Aboitiz Power (SNAP)-Magat, and SNAP-RES.
Other participants also include Ayala-led AC Energy, Citicore Energy Solutions, Inc., and Sparc-Solar Powered Agri-Rural Communities Corporation.
