Renewable Energy on the Rise – Watch Out for in 2023
2023 looks to be of greater interest for companies here in the Philippines when it comes to sustainability, built up on trends that have begun in 2022 and are influenced by policies and regulatory guidelines on how to transition from the old practices in business to ESG-based or sustainable practices in the Philippines.
NRI Manila Branch wishes to share emerging trends in sustainability in the Philippines that should be on the lookout in 2023. In this article, the organization firstly pick up renewable energy featuring on-going initiatives as recap from the past articles and up-coming initiatives to watch in 2023.
IMAGE from Pexels
Accelerate promoting renewable energy
The Philippine government is moving forward in its renewable energy (RE) commitment of 35 percent in 2030 and 50 percent in 2040, based on the Philippine Energy Plan 2020-2040, in line with the Renewable Energy Act 2008 (Republic Act 9513).
On the supply side, the Philippine Government concluded the first round of the Green Energy Auction Program (GEAP) in June 2022 with 1,966.93 megawatts of renewable energy (RE) capacities committed to deliver energy from 2023 to 2025. The GEAP is an initiative to enable the selection of eligible renewable energy plants through a competitive process or auction. The auction was also successful in achieving competitive prices lower than or equal to the Green Energy Auction Reserve prices set by the Energy Regulatory Commission.
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced in September 2022 that companies that are participants of the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) process to increase their annual incremental RE percentage share from 1.0 percent to 2.52 percent from 2023 to 2040, in a bid to accelerate their energy transition needs from traditional to renewable sources. The RPS refers to a market-based government initiative that mandates electricity suppliers to source a certain amount of their energy supply from eligible RE resources.
IMAGE from Pexels
DOE, along with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and allied agencies, announced in November 2022 the allowing of full (100 percent) foreign ownership of renewable energy projects (particularly in solar and wind projects) to speed up the process of increasing RE presence in the energy grid, except for hydroelectric projects. The Government expects more foreign investments in renewable energy to increase the generation capacity.
On the demand side, the Government is looking toward ways to enhance their efforts on four main initiatives, namely in Energy Efficiency and Conservation, Net-Metering, GEOP, and Distributed Energy Resources (DER), designed to increase the awareness of electricity end-users, including companies and organizations that are planning to move forward with strategies related to decarbonization and green energy use.
Support from the private sector is also encouraging the move to shift from fossil fuels to RE. ACEN, the energy subsidiary of the Ayala Corporation, has pledged in October 2022 to a 100 percent renewable energy generation portfolio in 2025 by promoting RE sources and sells its coal-fired power assets. Air carrier Cebu Pacific has also installed solar panels in its offices and intends to use sustainable aviation fuel (composed of mostly biofuels) to power all its aircraft by 2030.
NRI Manila supports companies in the Philippines in navigating through the sustainability and ESG spaces through its Sustainability Service components, and help companies plot their sustainability strategy through culture, systems, and reporting angles before starting on their journey to a more sustainable future.
