THE country’s total renewable energy (RE) installed capacity as of end-September this year stood at 5,471.04 megawatts (MW), slightly up from 5,442.71MW in the same period a year ago.
Of the total, 5,273.04MW were for grid use while 191.355 were for own use. Based on DOE data posted on its web site, a total of 1016 RE projects—952 for grid use and 64 for own use—were recorded. In the same period last year, the number of RE projects was recorded at 933.
Of the total RE projects, there are 431 hydro, 334 solar, 81 biomass, 126 wind, 36 geothermal and eight ocean projects. The numbers remain unchanged for ocean and geothermal at end-September last year, while others increased except for biomass, which recorded 83 projects.
In terms of capacity, geothermal reached 1,931.67MW; hydro, 1,109.581MW; solar, 1169.422MW; wind, 442.91MW; and biomass, 817.461MW. The Department of Energy (DOE) is targeting 35 percent RE share in the power generation mix by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040. As of last month, the RE share stood at 22 percent. To meet this target, the renewable portfolio standards (RPS) program of the government was adjusted to 2.5 percent from 1 percent. The increase in the utilization of RE in the country’s power generation mix would encourage more investors and end-users to develop and utilize domestic energy sources, DOE Secretary Raphael Lotilla said earlier.
The RPS program requires distribution utilities to tap eligible RE facilities for a portion of their supply needs. It is among the measures under the Renewable Energy (RE) Act of 2008 to raise RE production and meet renewables targets.
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