By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated May 22, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines – Lopez-owned
Energy Development Corp. (EDC) and the State of Hawaii are exploring a possible
collaboration to pursue geothermal power projects in the US state as part of
the company’s clean energy transformation in the next three decades.
In a statement, EDC said Luis P.
Salaveria, director of Hawaii’s Department of Business, Economic Development
and Tourism (DBEDT), recently met with geothermal experts and top officials of
EDC to learn how the state can incorporate geothermal power and reduce its
dependency on fossil fuels.
“Hawaii is especially interested in
gaining a deeper understanding about geothermal energy and how this renewable
energy (RE) source can help in achieving HCEI’s (Hawaii Clean Energy
Initiative) goal,” Salaveria said.
“As one of the biggest geothermal
companies in the world, EDC could be a possible partner of Hawaii in a future
cooperation agreement,” he added.
EDC owns and operates 12 geothermal
power projects with an installed geothermal capacity of 1,169 megawatts (MW).
Currently, it is pursuing
opportunities to develop geothermal fields in Latin America and Indonesia.
While Hawaii has other RE options
like wind and solar, these RE sources are intermittent and cannot be used to
run base-load power plants, Salaveria said.
Given its vast potential, Hawaii
considers geothermal a natural RE option to run more base-load power plants in
the future, he said.
“Hawaii’s current dependence on oil
threatens our natural resources, and places economic security at risk. We are
looking to diversify our energy portfolio to meet the goal of 100 percent
renewables by 2045,” Salaveria said.
At present, imported oil provides 90
percent of Hawaii’s energy needs.
The Hawaii State Energy Office
embarked on a strategic plan to position Hawaii as a proving ground for clean
energy technologies and achieve 100 percent RE plan last year. The office is
under DBEDT, a state department in the executive branch under the Office of the
Governor.
Currently, Hawaii has a 38-MW
geothermal production capacity. Studies indicate that Hawaii may hold more than
1,000 MW of geothermal reserves on Maui and Hawaii islands, two of its eight
main islands.
EDC is a subsidiary of First Gen
Corp., the Philippines’ leading clean and renewable energy company with an
installed capacity of 2,959 MW at the end of 2015. Aside from geothermal, First
Gen’s portfolio of power plants also runs on natural gas, hydro, wind and
solar.
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