AC Energy is optimistic the implementation by the Department of Energy of the Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) will benefit the company’s aspirations of further expanding its fleet of renewable energy (RE) projects.
Eric Francia, AC Energy president and chief executive officer, said where before the development of RE is mainly driven by the decline in technology costs, the RPS has created a sure market for clean energy projects.
Under the RPS which will be implemented starting December 26, all distribution utilities will be required to source an initial one percent of their total power supply requirements from renewable sources. The percentage will increase annually.
However, Francia said he agrees with the National Renewable Energy Board the current one percent annual increment for RPS will not be enough if the DOE’s goal is to achieve a 35 percent RE share in the national power mix by 2030.
He said the annual increment must be raised to 2.5 percent by 2023 or 2024.
Francia said another advantage of RE is that it can be done “chunk by chunk and can built in phases as “it is not always a billion dollar (investment) decision.”
AC Energy earlier announced it will start the construction of projects with at least 1,500 megawatts (MW) renewable energy capacity by next year. These are in the Philippines, Australia, Vietnam and India.
Half of its target of reaching 5,000 MW renewable energy capacity by 2025 can be realized as ext year when an 2,850 MW capacity comes online including the 1,500 MW yet to be built.
At present, the group has 450 MW RE capacity from local projects and another 900 MW from projects abroad
Based on equity interest in power generation businesses, the entire AC Energy Group currently owns approximately 1,800 MW of generation capacity both in operations and under construction.
