GLOBAL Renewable Energy Mass Adoption Program (Greenmap), a non-profit organization supporting developing countries’ clean energy transitions, said boosting renewable energy adoption in the Philippines could be best undertaken through the government’s ongoing auction programs.
At the sidelines of Asian Development Bank’s Asia Clean Energy Forum in Mandaluyong City recently, Greenmap director of country engagement and partnership Andrea Bertello said the group is working with the Department of Energy (DOE) “in terms of improving the GEA (green energy auction) scheme.”
The GEA is being undertaken by the DOE to facilitate investments in renewable energy in a bid to achieve the target of 35% renewable energy in the energy mix by 2035 and 50% by 2040.
The program seeks to ensure competitive selection of firms to obtain rights to develop renewable energy capacity.
“In terms of renewables… the instrument that is showing the best results is the renewable energy auctions, so I don’t think its really necessary to use PPP (public-private partnership) model,” Bertello said.
“Renewables are a kind of mature markets today so if the government is able to design proper well-structured auction schemes, you let the market invest and take ownership of these projects which is what is happening all over the world. I think it is really the most efficient for the Philippines… I don’t see why market mechanisms like auctions will not work here,” he added.
This month, the DOE is targeting to conduct the second round of GEA for 20-year renewable energy supply contracts for a total of 11,600 megawatts (MW) target installations from 2024 to 2026, following the success of the first GEA in 2022 auctioning off 2,000 MW capacity and awarding a total of 19 contracts.
“I think the first round of the auction showed some results and some areas that need to be improved. We believe that there is a big opportunity to improve the system going into the next round,” Bertello said.
“It’s a very ambitious program, we are very interested in seeing how it develops,” he said. (GMA Integrated News)
