BIOMASS HUB

With a shortage of indigenous fossil fuels and faced with the challenge of distributing power across a number of islands, Philippines has set an aggressive agenda to increase the country’s use of distributed renewable energy. Pursuing renewable energy development is essential for the Philippines to attain energy security and economic sustainability, while helping to mitigate climate change and the devastating impacts it can have on low-lying regions throughout the country.

Fortunately, the Philippines is blessed with abundant renewable energy sources and has harnessed that potential to meet 30 percent of its power demand with renewable resources. As such, the country could be considered one of the world leaders in renewable energy.

Policies have played an important role in this development. The Renewable Energy Act passed in 2008 calls for new support mechanisms, including a feed-in-tariff and a renewable portfolio standard, which are expected to be implemented in the coming months. The Philippine’s Department of Energy launched the updated National Renewable Energy Plan this month, which aims to triple renewable energy supply by 2030.

Biomass investors are taking note. A slew of waste to energy and biopower generation facilities are slated for development — or are expected to come online — in the coming months.  The country’s first integrated waste to energy plant is expected to be constructed by August this year. Meanwhile, Team Energy, a major developer of renewable energy projects, is focusing on coconut leaves or any other types of leaves to generate baseload power in eight biopower facilities feedstock. Although many projects are small (5-10 MW), a variety of feedstocks are being sought and the focus is on distributed production across the archipelago.

More on the Philippines biopower:

• The Right Mix: The Philippines Achieving Its Renewable Energy Goals
• First Integrated Waste to Energy Plant slated to open in August
• Team Energy to develop eight greenfield renewable energy power plants