The Philippines used to be the world’s second-largest user of geothermal energy in terms of installed capacity. But in 2018, the country dropped in the global rankings for geothermal countries, just behind Indonesia.
At the end of 2020, the United States still topped with an installed capacity of 3,714 megawatt (MW), according to ThinkGeoEnergy, the leading information services provider for the global geothermal energy sector. Indonesia came next with 2,133 MW and then the Philippines, with 1,918 MW.
“Southeast Asia is home to 25 percent of the world’s geothermal generation capacity,” said ThinkGeoEnergy on its website. “Most, if not all of this geothermal capacity is located in the Philippines and Indonesia.”
The following countries also uses geothermal as a source of power generation: Turkey (1,526 MW), New Zealand (1,005 MW), Mexico (962.7 MW), Italy (944 MW), Kenya (861 MW), Iceland (755 MW), and Japan (603 MW).
“The Philippines keeps dropping in renewable energy deployment despite ambitious targets,” observed Alexander Ritcher, founder and principal of ThinkGeoEnergy. “Targets, strategy and approach to foster development are needed, particularly for a key resource in the country – geothermal energy.”
In 2023, a Philippine Star news item said the Philippines wanted to dislodge Indonesia from its current rank and reclaim its second spot “with nearly 400 MW of potential additional capacity.”
“The development and utilization of geothermal energy slowed down since 2007 and only 86 MW was added in the total installed despite the enactment of Republic Act 9513 or the Renewable Energy Act of 2008,” Undersecretary Rowena Cristian Guevara of the department of Energy was quoted as saying.
Geothermal energy is considered a renewable energy source since its supply is considered inexhaustible. The word “geothermal” comes from two Greek words: geo, which means “earth” and thermos, meaning “heat.”
Science tells us that the inner core of the earth consists of a molten mass that acts as the source of geothermal energy. In some areas of the Philippines and throughout the world, the intense heat within the earth occurs near the earth’s surface and heats underground water, forming hot water or steam.
If these reservoirs are close enough to the surface, wells can be drilled to tap the steam and hot water. The steam and hot water is used to produce electricity with generators. (Geysers occur where these reservoirs of steam and hot water naturally break through the surface.)
The use of geothermal energy is not a recent discovery. Both Norse Vikings, who settled in Iceland more than 1,000 years ago, and American Indians used geothermal geysers for cooking and baking. The Maoris, who settled in New Zealand about 600 years ago, grew their sweet potatoes in geothermally heated gardens.
According to Wikipedia, the first industrial harnessing of steam from the earth started in northern Italy more than half a century ago when Prince Piero Ginori Conti decided to hook a generator to a steam engine driven by natural steam.
The success of this operation (after so many innovations) led to the installation of the world’s first geothermal power plant, with a capacity of 250 kilowatts, in 1913. Today, the site is a favorite tourist attraction.
It was the world’s only industrial producer of geothermal electricity until 1958, when New Zealand built a plant of its own.
As years went by, more innovations came. The first commercial geothermal heat pump was designed by J.D. Krocker to heat the Commonwealth Building in Portland, Oregon in 1946. Two years later, Professor Carl Nielsen of Ohio State University built the first residential heat pump two years later. The technology became popular in Sweden as a result of the 1973 oil crisis and has been growing slowly in worldwide acceptance since then.
In the Philippines, geothermal expert Dr. Arturo Alcaraz was credited with introducing geothermal energy. In the 1960s, Dr. Alcaraz – who was then with the Philippine Volcanology Office (now called Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology) – built the first small geothermal plant in Tiwi, near Mount Mayon.
“The first electric bulb in the Philippines lit by earth-heat energy was in Tiwi, Albay, on April 12, 1967,” chronicled the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, which honored Dr. Alcaraz in 1982 for “his scientific perspicacity and selfless perseverance in guiding Filipinos to understand and use one of their greatest natural resources.”
Commercial use of geothermal energy for electric power generation started with the commissioning of a three-megawatt pilot power plant in Leyte in 1977. Large-scale plants were later commissioned between 1979 and 1984.
“Geothermal energy is well-developed (in the Philippines),” wrote Nicola Jaeger and Michael Reckordt in an article “Power for the People,” which appeared in Handbook Philippines. “It has been promoted through tax exemptions and other incentives since the passage of the Geothermal Energy Law of 1978.”
Currently, the Philippines has six geothermal plants scattered throughout the country. These are the Makiling-Banahaw (Mak-Ban) areas, just south of Manila; Tiwi in Albay; Bacon-Manito (Bac-Man) in Sorsogon; Tongonan in Leyte; Palinpin in Southern Negros; and the Mount Apo in Mindanao.
Statistics available from the International Geothermal Association said the combined energy from these six geothermal fields accounts for approximately 17% of the country’s electricity generation.
The Mount Apo Geothermal Plant, located in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato, has three units. Unit 1, which has a nameplate capacity of 52 MW using flash steam technology, was commissioned in 1997. Unit 2, commissioned in 1999, has a nameplate capacity of 54 MW using flash steam technology. The expansion unit, which has a capacity of 4 MW using binary cycle technology, has been in operation since 2022.
During a recent media seminar entitled “Powering Progress: The Path Towards the Philippines’ Clean Energy Transition” held in Iloilo City, Alberto Dalusong III told participants that the Mount Apo Geothermal Plant “is still running at full capacity” despite it being “really old.”
Dalusong, the Philippine Representative of GreenFire Energy Inc., was quoted by Edge Davao’s Maya Padillo saying that “the operating capacity factor of geothermal in the Philippines is 90% and is still considered the most reliable source of electric power.”
“All geothermal, which a lot of them are old, are 90 percent capacity factor. Historically, geothermal has been our most reliable source of electric power,” Dalusong was quoted as saying.
“Energy is critical to advances in human development,” said a publication published by the United Nations Development Program. “Electricity enables the introduction of lighting in homes and the use of washing machines and other modern appliances and communication tools.
“And, crucially, (geothermal energy) does not harm the natural resources like conventional energy sources such as coal, gas or nuclear power with its legacy of radioactive waste,” it adds.
Geothermal power is indeed environment-friendly. It requires no fuel and is therefore immune to fluctuations in fuel cost. In fact, the production of the electricity by geothermal plants is cheaper than the electricity produced in plants by using natural gas and coal. It is even cheaper than electricity produced by hydro power stations.
Studies have shown that geothermal has minimal land use requirements; existing geothermal plants use 1-10 hectares per megawatt versus 5-12 hectares per megawatt for nuclear operations and 25 hectares per megawatt for coal power plants.
“Social and environmental costs should not be ignored” when building geothermal power plants, pointed out Jaeger and Reckordt. “Usually, sites for geothermal energy generation are in mountainous regions, which are either protected areas or home to indigenous communities.”
Of course, geothermal power still creates some environmental problems. Studies have shown that geothermal fluids drawn from the deep earth may carry a mixture of gases with them, notably carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide.
It is said that when released to the environment, these pollutants contribute to climate change, acid rain, and noxious smells in the vicinity of the plant. According to studies, existing geothermal electric plants emit an average of 90-120 kilograms of carbon dioxide per megawatt hour of electricity.
But this is just a small fraction of the emission intensity of conventional fossil fuel plants. In some parts of the world, some geothermal power plants are equipped with emissions-controlling systems that reduce the exhaust of acids and volatiles.
In addition to dissolved gases, hot water from geothermal sources may contain trace amounts of dangerous elements such as mercury, arsenic, and antimony which, if disposed of into rivers, can render their water unsafe to drink. Geothermal plants can theoretically inject these substances, along with the gases, back into the earth, in a form of carbon sequestration.
