On March 25 and 26, 2010, the first Renewable Energy Summit will be held at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza. The summit was organized and will be hosted by the First Metro Investment Corporation, in partnership with the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.
The summit will be an annual event and the organizers aim to attract [...]

A Chinese company is looking to invest in the renewable energy in the Philippines. The Wahaha Group Co. Ltd. is mulling to add to its investment in the country, an ethanol plant. The company earlier announced its interest for a joint venture in a fruit juice processing plant.
Mariz Agbon, president of the Philippine Agribusiness Development [...]

Local banks have agreed to help raise and lend the Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) P14-billion for its construction of a 164-megawatt coal-fired power plant in La Paz, Iloilo City. The Panay Energy is owned by George Ty’s Metrobank group, and the loans were arranged by First Metro Investment Corp. (FMIC), the investment banking arm [...]

The Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) was able to bag an exploration contract to develop the Mt. Isarog volcanic chain in Camarines Sur.  The PNOC’s $60-million Mt. Isarog geothermal project is estimated to generate 18 gigawatt-hours of electricity per year from its potential capacity of at least 20 megawatts.  It will be started in the [...]

A local firm engaged in the production of renewable energy is planning to put up a biomass plant in Quezon. A 10 megawatt (MW) biomass plant in Quezon is one of the upcoming projects of Ecoenerhiya. Company director for business development, Antonio Lopez, was quoted as saying that the project would cost about $36 million [...]

The Kepco SPC Power Corp. (KSPC), a joint venture between Korea Electric Power Corp. and SPC Power Corp, acquired a loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the construction of a major power plant in the Visayas.
The ADB has approved the grant of $120-million 12-year term loan for the construction of a 200-megawatt (MW) [...]

The Department of Energy (DOE) has started accepting proposals for the bidding of the nine geothermal areas offered under the latest Philippine Energy Contracting Round (PECR). At least 10 local and foreign groups have already been pre-qualified.
According to Mario Marasigan, DOE assistant secretary, they are evaluating the submitted proposals at present to verify if they [...]

Asia’s leading developer and manager of business space, Ascendas Pte Ltd. (Ascendas), recently opened the ACCRALAW Tower located within the E-square in Bonifacio Global City. Present as guest of honor in its opening ceremony was Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo.

At least 24 bids from 10 possible contracts under the geothermal energy contracting round were received by the Department of Energy (DOE). Energy assistant secretary Mario Marasigan said, “We received strong interest because of the renewable energy law. Now we are seeing the fruits of Republic Act 9513, wherein the incentives are really attractive.” Marasigan [...]

The big companies were clamoring for the lifting of it, while the Philippine government was adamant in its resolve to keep the Executive Order 839 enforced. EO 839, which was issued by President Arroyo on October 23, freezes fuel prices at October 15 levels.
In line with this, the joint Task Force of the Department of [...]

The First Gen Energy Solutions Inc. (FGES) has agreed to supply the electricity requirement of Iloilo Electric Cooperative 1 (ILECO 1). FGES is the retail energy supplier and electricity aggregator subsidiary of First Gen Corp.
According to Richard Tantoco, the executive vice president and chief operating officer of First Gen and FGES, the power that would [...]

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is ordered by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to refund its customers a total of P278 million in net over-recoveries, which is equivalent to 1.07 centavos per kilowatt-hour, within a period of one year. Consumers however, would hardly feel this because those who consume 100 kWh monthly would only get [...]

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is now after dealers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and construction materials who are taking advantage on the aftermath of tropical storm Ondoy and overpricing their items.
The trade department will be coordinating with the Department Of Energy about the matter, while it says that it hasn’t received any [...]

Trade Secretary Peter Favila and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo were in London recently to attend the Emerging Markets Summit, where he had a meeting with several British companies who have expressed interest to invest in the Philippines, either via fresh infusions or the expansion of their existing projects. Areas of interests include mining, energy and business [...]

To encourage more investments in renewable energy projects in the Philippines, the International Finance Corp. (IFC) launched a program that would assist banks in moving loan financing away from the high energy consuming projects toward those favoring energy efficiency and emission reduction. IFC is the World Bank’s private sector lending arm.

Recently, nine Korean companies went to the Philippines for the Philippine-Korea clean development mechanism/renewable energy (CDM/RE) projects forum which was organized by the Korea Trade (Kotra) Center. The Korean companies also scouted for renewable and alternative energy projects in country when they were here. They were also looking for local partners.

Local tile manufacturer Mariwasa Siam Ceramics Inc. was recently awarded by the Department of Energy two certificates of registration for its biomass project, which will make use of biomass residues such as rice husk, saw dust and coconut husk in power generation. The DOE said Mariwasa will make use of the biomass gasification technology, where [...]

More investments on renewable energy are coming in the Philippines, as another British firm expressed interest to build a total of 30 megawatt (MW) ethanol-based power plants in Bukidnon and Tarlac.

The Philippine government, through the Department of Energy (DOE), and Asian Development Bank (DBP) recently launched a campaign that would push the more efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) to replace the power-hungry incandescent light bulbs.

The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) opened for bidding the independent power producer administrator (IPPA) contracts for the National Power Corp.’s three hydro-electric power plants.  These are the 30-megawatt Benguet Mini-Hydro; 345-MW San Roque Multi-Purpose Hydro-electric Power Plant in Pangasinan and the 70-MW Bakun Hydroelectric Power Plant in Ilocos Sur.