Is Pres Duterte the President that the Renewable Energy sector is waiting for?

Savings from oil and coal importation

Rizal Philippines
July 31, 2016

Yes and no.  Yes because he says so. But he bats for coal power because it is cheap (P3.00 /kwh as what former DOE sec Petilla has said)   So as a political creature, he is not ready for RE yet which can go up as high as P9/kwh.  (But take note this lessens dependence on coal importation and thus saves precious FX reserves)  Good for those in Semirara and other coal mines.  They say they can pulverize the coal to lessen CO2 emission

He merely wants to review the current project proposals at hand which coming from the big ones SMC, Aboitiz are all coal powered.  From GMA network  There are at least 50 coal powered plants in the pipeline.  Some quarters think that the first issue to be addressed are:

       1,  shortage of base load which only coal or hydro can provide (P3.00/kwh)  But hydro in Mindanao is unreliable because of the drought. Only  coal fired plants can provide this.  Hence it is tantalizing for politicians and Duterte is no exception to go for cheaper alternative. and that is coal

      But India is gunning up to 33 gW of wind energy and 90 gW of solar.  Can the Philippines be far behind (20 years behind if we continue on having coal fired plants   From Philnews. (RE challenges in the Philippines)

 Will Duterte push for renewables? And really be green?  In words and in deed.

Political will needed for pushing for renewables

PNoy Administration was not pro renewable energy; what about Digong

Savings from oil and coal importation

This author stopped making posts at this site under then admin of PNoy.  It was clearly not pro renewable energy (or ERC or DOE for that matter)  It was political and favored fossil fuel because power from coal is cheap.  P3/kwh

1. Thus the FIT for solar was not attractive enough

2.  The rooftop solar panels could not get traction because:

      1.  No decent affordable financing was available
      2.  The net metering scheme of a DU clearly discouraged solar rooftop.

Of course we could not blame the DU if they entered into take or buy provision (ie) they would have to pay the IPP whether or not the power contracted was used or not.  The rooftop panels would lessen the demand and they have to pay still for unused power.   This is the real reason behind their adamance to let net metering continue;  not the hullabaloo that it would destroy electrical system.

Would Duterte who promised bias towards renewable energy really mean that?