Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star)
- October 15, 2018 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Foreign clean
energy mini-grid developers have expressed interest to invest or partner with
local power cooperatives to energize far-flung areas in the country.
This was based on a post-event
survey conducted by the Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE) following a
business-to-business (B2B) matchmaking session held last month.
The Mini-grid B2B Forum was
primarily organized by the Department of Energy (DOE) and European Union Access
to Sustainable Energy Programme (EU-ASEP) last month to provide participants a
platform to partner with electric cooperatives (ECs) in bringing electricity to
rural communities by building clean renewable energy mini-grids.
Based on the survey results, 16
foreign participants said they would or were very likely to invest in
mini-grids in the Philippines.
There are 1,702 potential off-grid
sites in the Philippines, said Ernesto Silvano, Jr., NEA’s director of the
office for renewable energy development.
“The B2B Forum is a useful platform
for electric cooperatives in the Philippines to meet mini-grid technology
providers. Half of our electric cooperatives have already been engaging in
similar B2B events since the beginning of 2018, and since then three projects
have been completed and two are in the pipeline,” Silvano said.
The country’s 121 ECs are given the
challenge of electrifying the whole country by 2020.
“The government is targeting 100
percent electrification by 2020 using the least-costly and reliable energy
technologies for the many unserved and underserved island grids in the
country,” Energy Undersecretary Jesus Posadas said.
Posadas said the forum was a good
opportunity to link investors, electric cooperatives, and other stakeholders to
scale-up of electrification using sustainable and clean energy to foster
economic development.
More than 280 technology providers,
project developers and investors from Asia, Europe and North America took part
in the Philippines Mini-grid B2B Forum.
Over 100 participants entered into
more than 185 direct personal meetings on the final B2B Matchmaking day, with
almost 90 meetings leading to cooperation.
No comments:
Post a Comment