by Myrna Velasco January 5, 2016
The finish line is
near, thus, the Department of Energy (DOE) is anticipating to start the
validation of new solar farm projects that shall be qualified in the second
wave of feed-in-tariff (FIT) incentives.
“We expect validation
request by the last week of January,” Mario Marasigan, officer-in-charge
undersecretary of the energy department has noted.
At this stage, he stressed that it is
practically quiet from the solar power developers’ end, with him stressing that
“maybe because of the race.”
The renewable energy
sector’s solar race was premised upon the fact the government can only
accommodate up to 450 megawatts of additional capacity that will be
incentivized with the lowered FIT of P8.69 per kilowatt-hour (Kwh).
The DOE in 2014 has
jacked up the installation cap for FIT-underpinned solar capacities to 500MW, a
massive addition from the original limit of 50MW but with higher FIT of P9.63
per kWh.
About 748MW capacity
from 24 projects had been granted certificate of confirmation of commerciality
by the DOE. It infers then that it will be a tight race for all those pushing
their ventures to completion.
The cut-off set by
the energy department for projects to qualify in the second wave FIT is
mid-March 2016 – entailing then that the developers would only have two months
from now to bring their facilities to the “commerciality phase” set by the DOE.
Marasigan noted that
reports reaching the department had so far been scarce recently, but they
expect to be swamped as the end of the race closes in.
“Maybe developers
would not want to disclose their respective project status, so we cannot really
account actual capacities,” he said.
In his last
conversation with the media, the energy official indicated that some developers
are still having problems with site procurements and permitting – and such had
become delaying factor to their project implementation plans.
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