Manila Bulletin
By Myrna M. Velasco
Published: April 11, 2013
In an ironic pronouncement, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla is now promising stakeholders that his department will be transparent when it comes to policies for the renewable energy (RE) sector.
This somehow gives hope to the industry that the Department of Energy (DoE) will no longer resort to “unilateral tweaking of policies”, without consulting or even hearing the side of prospective investors, such as what happened with the rules on feed-in-tariff (FIT) availments.
The domestic RE industry so far has been batting for a leadership that is “willing to listen” and will balance policy options according to the weight of concerns presented by various stakeholders.
Back from his speaking engagement at the Pacific Energy Summit (PES) in Vancouver, Canada, the energy chief has laid down that “utilization of clean energy is an immediate priority of the Philippine government and we will support initiatives that will spur their development by way of transparent policies.”
Giving “priority to RE developments” however remains a “subjective precept” for industry players especially the promised “immediacy,” because this has been the government’s same pronouncement since 2010.
Lifting some learnings from the Canada conference, the energy chief has also been pushing for greater collaboration among Trans-Pacific countries when it comes to RE ventures – or a development matrix traversing North America to Asian jurisdictions.
Primarily, the energy chief noted that efforts are aimed at strengthening “the Asia-North America ties which are envisioned to play a significant role in boosting energy and environmental security.”
Petilla stipulated that the key themes of discussions among high-level policymakers and industry leaders at the summit revolved around articulating regional energy needs and opportunities; exploring market-based policy solutions, coordinating efforts “to effectively use available technology and limited resources;” as well as promoting public-private partnerships.
The energy chief further relayed that best practices and solutions were also highlighted.
Aside from the Philippines, some of the countries represented were the United States, Canada, Singapore, Bangladesh, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, China, Indonesia and the United Kingdom.
In his speech, Petilla sounded off the information-sharing need amongst countries to “strengthen RE knowledge and technologies,” chiefly in the area of research, development and demonstration activities toward technology innovation and standards interoperability, technology transfer and financing windows, among others.
What the energy secretary ought to understand, however, is that the more developed countries with matured RE markets are now moving away from subsidies; while the Philippines has yet to take its initial plunge on FIT-underpinned project developments. (MMV) source
This somehow gives hope to the industry that the Department of Energy (DoE) will no longer resort to “unilateral tweaking of policies”, without consulting or even hearing the side of prospective investors, such as what happened with the rules on feed-in-tariff (FIT) availments.
The domestic RE industry so far has been batting for a leadership that is “willing to listen” and will balance policy options according to the weight of concerns presented by various stakeholders.
Back from his speaking engagement at the Pacific Energy Summit (PES) in Vancouver, Canada, the energy chief has laid down that “utilization of clean energy is an immediate priority of the Philippine government and we will support initiatives that will spur their development by way of transparent policies.”
Giving “priority to RE developments” however remains a “subjective precept” for industry players especially the promised “immediacy,” because this has been the government’s same pronouncement since 2010.
Lifting some learnings from the Canada conference, the energy chief has also been pushing for greater collaboration among Trans-Pacific countries when it comes to RE ventures – or a development matrix traversing North America to Asian jurisdictions.
Primarily, the energy chief noted that efforts are aimed at strengthening “the Asia-North America ties which are envisioned to play a significant role in boosting energy and environmental security.”
Petilla stipulated that the key themes of discussions among high-level policymakers and industry leaders at the summit revolved around articulating regional energy needs and opportunities; exploring market-based policy solutions, coordinating efforts “to effectively use available technology and limited resources;” as well as promoting public-private partnerships.
The energy chief further relayed that best practices and solutions were also highlighted.
Aside from the Philippines, some of the countries represented were the United States, Canada, Singapore, Bangladesh, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, China, Indonesia and the United Kingdom.
In his speech, Petilla sounded off the information-sharing need amongst countries to “strengthen RE knowledge and technologies,” chiefly in the area of research, development and demonstration activities toward technology innovation and standards interoperability, technology transfer and financing windows, among others.
What the energy secretary ought to understand, however, is that the more developed countries with matured RE markets are now moving away from subsidies; while the Philippines has yet to take its initial plunge on FIT-underpinned project developments. (MMV) source
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