MANILA: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Wednesday (July 29) reaffirmed the government’s goal of having the Philippines source half of its power generation from renewables by 2040.
He made the remarks as he opened the Philippines’ first interactive Energy Museum at the Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Center in Taguig City.
“Currently, 25 percent of our electricity supply comes from renewable energy,” he said in Filipino.
“We are expanding this further, and our goal is to reach 35 per cent by 2030 and 50 per cent by 2040,” he added.
This includes solar power, wind power, geothermal energy, and others.
To ensure energy security, Marcos said the government has been implementing measures to conserve energy since the onset of the conflict in the Middle East in February.
“All government agencies proceeded to reduce their actual electricity and fuel consumption by 10 to 20 per cent,” he said.
Complementing this effort, we encourage every Filipino to take part in the Oras Natin sa Efficiency campaign. Help us conserve electricity, switch off non-essential lights, unplug unused appliances,” he added.
In a press briefing in May, Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said the DOE has so far awarded 20 gigawatts in contracts from previous waves of the green energy auction (GEA).
“We project that we will need to conduct additional GEAs for around 20 gigawatts more capacity… to reach 50 percent by 2040,” she said.
To accelerate the deployment of clean power assets, Garin said the DOE has been conducting green power biddings to entice the private sector to increase its investments in this space.
Garin said one of the initiatives is the GEA program, which offers fixed rates to winning bidders. - Philippine Daily Inquirer/ANN
