OPS: Gov’t aggressively pursuing renewable energy

The government is targeting a 35 percent share of renewable energy in the country’s power generation mix by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040

Tapping renewable energy sources is among the top priorities of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for 2023, the Office of the Press Secretary said Sunday, citing an “aggressive bid to realize a sufficient and clean energy supply in the future.”

“Ensuring an unhampered supply of energy alongside the promotion and utilization of renewable energy sources are top priorities of the administration,” the OPS said.

Eyed by the Department of Energy to boost the nuclear mix is nuclear power. The department will update the existing nuclear road map of the country, the OPS said.

The country’s first attempt to use nuclear energy was with the construction of the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in response to the 1973 oil crisis that severely affected the Philippine economy.

The BNPP, however, was not powered up over safety issues raised by its critics who cited the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster in Ukraine in 1986.

Last March, then-President Rodrigo Duterte issued Executive Order 164 to rekindle the country’s nuclear energy program.

Duterte said tapping nuclear power could minimize possible trade-offs between the emissions of power plants, especially those fueled with coal, and the environment.

The EO tasked the Nuclear Energy Program-Inter-Agency Committee to conduct studies on the viability of the BNPP and the establishment of other facilities for the utilization of nuclear energy.

“The DoE, in collaboration with the Energy Regulatory Commission, is also set to develop the policy and framework for new and emerging renewable energy technologies,” the OPS said.

“These include offshore wind, waste-to-energy, expanded rooftop solar program, as well as ocean and tidal stream energy,” it added.

The government is targeting a 35 percent share of renewable energy in the country’s power generation mix by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.

“The DoE also issued 18 Certificates of Award to the winning bidders of the 1st Green Energy Auction Program, with an aggregate capacity of 1,866.93 megawatts,” the OPS statement read.

The DoE is allowed 100 percent foreign capitalization of renewable energy projects.