By Abigail L. Ho
MANILA, Philippines—The Philippines is pushing to become the clean and green energy leader in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations by harmonizing its energy road maps and ensuring the effective implementation of related laws.
“We have long realized that the Energy sector may act as the prime mover of change by bringing to fore the importance of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The 2009-2030 Philippine Energy Plan embodies the strategy of making the Philippines the leader in green, clean and efficient energy,” Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said in a paper presented at the Asean Ministers on Energy Meeting in Vietnam.
“The real challenge essentially lies in performing beyond our own expectations. Plotting the country’s two milestone legislations with the actual time and progress of their implementation obliterates any penumbra of doubt shrouding their effectiveness. Given that they are not perfect laws, but the results speak for themselves,” he added.
He said the Department of Energy had formed a technical working group to review and harmonize the Philippine Energy Plan with the Renewable Energy Policy Framework. The marriage of the two would result in the birth of the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP).
The NREP, he said, would provide policy directions “to support market integration into grid operations, define renewable energy standards and quality control, and provide rules and guidelines for the mechanisms incorporated in the Renewable Energy Law” to expand renewable energy-based capacity.
For biofuels, he said the country aimed to increase bioethanol blend in gasoline to 20 percent by 2020 and biodiesel blend also to 20 percent by 2030.
Republic Act 9367, or the Biofuels Act of 2006, required all diesel-fed vehicles to use a minimum 1-percent biodiesel blend within three months of the effectivity of the law, or starting May 2007. The mandated blend rose to 2 percent in February last year.
Also in February last year, the mandate for gasoline to have at least a 5-percent ethanol blend, by total volume, also took effect. The mandated blend would rise to at least 10 percent after four years or by 2011.
At this point, Almendras said local biodiesel production had already reached 64.68 million liters, enough to cover the domestic blend requirements.
Ethanol supply, however, was problematic, he said.
Despite the recent inauguration of the P3-billion San Carlos Bioenergy Inc. ethanol manufacturing facility, local ethanol supply was far from enough.
“It is an unfortunate reality on our part that the bioethanol industry is not strong enough to timely respond with the requirements of the energy market. The Philippines is, therefore, planning to adopt a temporary scheme of bioethanol importation until the domestic supply becomes stable,” he said.
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