Assistant Secretary Romeo Montenegro, deputy executive director of Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), disclosed on Wednesday that there are 400 megawatts (MW) committed and 1,600 MW indicative renewable energy (RE) projects for Mindanao.
Montenegro explained that committed means there are already financial clauses but the proponents are just waiting for some approvals in terms of permits.
“As of the latest figures by the Department of Energy (DOE), we have about 400 MW of committed RE applications. Pag sinabing committed there is already financial clausing but the proponents are just waiting for some approvals in terms of permits. Kasi for instance as I explained several times before when it comes to hydro you have to go through several permitting processes. if it is in the mountains you have to go through the Indigenous Peoples’ cooperation and consent. If it is hydro there has to be a hydrological study which will take two years,” he told media.
There are also applications for biomass and battery storage.
“So all in all these are about 400 MW committed. Pag committed we are kung sa relationship pa may singsing na parang sure na ikakasal kasi nag propose na,” he said.
Montenegro explained that indicative projects are still being applied and recorded with the Department of Energy (DOE).
“There is also what we called indicative meaning gina-apply pa lang sa DOE and recorded na with DOE but wala pang financial clausing, which is you have not yet signed an agreement with financial institutions such as the banks that will provide money to build your powerplants. That is about 1,600 MW in Mindanao,” he added.
He said supposing all these 400 MW committed plus 1,600 indicative that is a total of 2,000 MW for Mindanao.
Montenegro said the timeline for the projects is 2028 and if these are implemented and in full delivery power to the grid it definitely turn the favor or turn the tide in favor of renewable energy by 2028.
“Yun lang it’s not easy to go through all these challenges. These are among the challenges being faced by proponents in terms of financial clausing and in terms of the market,” he said.
If these projects will be implemented they will also enable Mindanao to enjoy renewable energy.
“In today we are looking at the 70/30 ratio in favor of fossil, how many MW capacities do we need to install in Mindanao coming from RE by 2030? If we wanted to pursue a 50/50 energy-based we have to look at it per megawatt dimension, if today in Mindanao we have a total capacity of over 4,000 MW for instance which has a total capacity of about 2,700 of that is the available capacity, we wanted to increase the contribution of RE to the entire mix,” Montenegro said.
