The Department of Energy (DOE) said at least 52,826 megawatts (MW) of additional renewable energy (RE) capacity will be needed by 2040 if the country would stick to the current targets of the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS).
Under RPS, electricity suppliers are mandated to source a portion of their requirements from RE currently set at 2.52 percent per annum.
The program also aims to increase the share of RE in the country’s energy mix to 35 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.
“…By increasing the requirement to 2.52 percent, we would be needing around 53 GW of additional RE capacities by 2040 with an equivalent of 175 terawatt-hours of RE generation.
Note that this simulation does not include yet the share of nuclear energy as envisioned,” said Mylene Capongcol, DOE assistant secretary at the Philippine Electric Power Industry Forum hosted by the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines in Iloilo City last Friday.
Capongcol said new RE capacities that will be needed by 2040 are as follows: 364 MW for biomass; 2,500 MW for geothermal; 6,150 MW for hydro; 16,650 MW for wind; and 27,162 MW for solar.
“While we have already implemented most of the RE policy and development mechanism, there are still actions and strategies that we need to undertake, particularly, the implementation of the RPS, the green energy auction program,” Capongcol added.
The DOE official also noted the need to implement other policies that would further promote RE investments in the country.
These include new policies on the expanded roof-mounted solar program, an enhanced net-metering policy that will now cover off-grid areas as well and the upcoming commercial operations of the RE market.
According to latest data from the DOE, total installed RE capacity in the Philippines from solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and biomass technologies as of end-January 2024 stood at 8,417 MW.
This is equivalent to 29.7 percent of the 28,291 MW entire installed capacity in the country for the period excluding energy storage systems.
