The Department of Energy (DOE) expects more investments in geothermal energy in the country with the implementation of programs that aim to attract foreign and local developers.
DOE Undersecretary Rowena Guevara said at the first day of the 4th Philippine International Geothermal Conference in Taguig City on Wednesday at least 73.6 megawatts (MW) of geothermal energy projects are set to be operational until next year.
Guevara said among the geothermal energy projects scheduled to be operational before the end of the year are the 17 megawatts (MW) Tiwi binary plant, the 29 MW Palayan binary plant and the 2 MW Biliran power plant.
The DOE said the 5.6 MW Bago binary plant and the 20 MW Tanawon plant will be online by next year.
Guevara said the DOE also expects 381 MW of additional capacity from projects that are undergoing pre-feasibility studies.
The DOE is accelerating the development of low to medium enthalpy geothermal resource areas to assess the economic feasibility of small-scale geothermal power projects for local power needs. It is also preparing a comprehensive data package to showcase such type of geothermal resource for future private investor participants.
Low enthalpy areas are geothermal prospects capable of steam temperature of only 60 to 180 degrees Centigrade which is lower than the conventional 220 degrees Centigrade. However, development of low enthalpy areas is more difficult since it requires deeper drilling process.
The DOE said the Asian Development Bank is conducting a study on geothermal de-risking roadmap of the Philippines to identify, evaluate and recommend geothermal pre-development stage de-risking strategies.
The agency added the regular conduct of the Open and Competitive Selection Process (OCSP) wherein potential areas for RE development or pre-determined areas (PDAs) will be offered and bid out to private investors will help increase the country’s geothermal energy capacity.
Under the OCSP set to be conducted this year, the DOE has approved three PDAs for geothermal for a total capacity of 160 MW.
Based on data from the DOE, the country’s total installed capacity from geothermal energy projects is at 1,952 MW or 6.9 percent of the 28,258 MW total installed capacity in the country as of end-2022.
