DOE awarded 682 renewable-energy contracts as of end-April

Business Mirror
by Lenie Lectura - September 17, 2015

THE Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded 682 renewable-energy (RE) contracts, seven years after the Renewable Act of 2008 was enacted into law.

As of end-April this year, the agency said that these contracts have a potential generation capacity of 13,574.68 megawatts (MW) as against a total installed capacity of 2,912.01 MW.

Of the 682 RE projects awarded by the government, 411 are hydropower; 92 for solar; 50 for wind; 40 for biomass, 43 for geothermal; and eight for ocean energy. These 644 contracts were awarded for grid use.

On top of these, there were 38 RE contracts awarded for self-generation of electricity for their own use. These include one each for hydro and wind; 12 for solar; and 24 for biomass.

The latest DOE data also showed that of the pending RE projects, 167 are hydro; 51 for solar; two for ocean; nine for biomass; nine for wind; and two are geothermal. The potential generation capacity of these pending RE projects could reach 3,786.70 MW as against an installed capacity of 196.70 MW.

Under the National Renewable Energy Plan, the DOE aims to increase the country’s RE generation to 15,304 MW by 2030.

The DOE has already streamlined the process of RE applications, from two years down to just 45 days, to ensure that RE developers and investors will have an easier time in applying for RE service contracts.

Moreover, the DOE has partnered with the Department with the United States Agency for International Development to develop the Energy Vehicle One Shared System (EVOSS), a Web-based monitoring of RE applications.

Originally patterned from the One-Stop Facilitation and Monitoring Center Web Portal for Mindanao RE projects, the EVOSS aims to facilitate and streamline the process of RE applications.

The EVOSS can track the number of days an application is pending with a certain government agency. It tells the status of an application and states how long before an approval is secured, among others.

To promote the use of RE on a larger scale and to attract new investments for RE facilities, the government is banking on the feed-in-tariff (FiT) system.

FiT is a premium rate paid for electricity fed into the electricity grid from a designated renewable electricity generation source, like solar-energy system or wind-power plant. source