DOE seeks long-term funds for renewable energy projects

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking long-term financing to energy investments, particularly on renewable energy (RE) projects, from multilateral lenders.

In his speech during the recent Energy Investment Forum, Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said he considers raising funds for RE projects a most challenging job for the DOE.

Almendras said the DOE is urging multilateral financial institutions to extend assistance to boost investment in the energy sector.

“I’ve been talking to multilaterals. I am trying to talk to our friends in the World Bank, the USAID. I would really like to see 20-year money available to energy investments,” he said.

The energy chief said he is also talking with commercial banks for the same purpose.

“To the banks, the financial institutions that are here, the reality is, there will always be demand for energy in the future. So you do not have a market risk. The market maybe hard to quantify, but the energy demand will continue to grow, but we also understand your problem,” he said, pointing to the difficulty of convincing financial institutions to pour in money to RE.

International Finance Corp. (IFC), the private sector lending arm of the World Bank, earlier said it is eyeing to invest more than $300 million in the power sector, including RE projects.

IFC resident representative to the Philippines Jesse Ang said for the past three years, the institution had already poured in about $900 million to the Philippine power industry.