Urgent shift to renewable energy pushed

CEBU, Philippines — The Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development (CEED) has called for an urgent shift to 100 percent renewable energy in the country amid outages, high electricity prices, and unparalleled warm weather conditions.

Renewable energy resources include geothermal, hydropower, biomass and ocean, solar, and wind as defined by the Department of Energy.

The CEED reiterated its call in one of the largest gatherings of energy players in the Philippines, the Future Energy Show 2023.

CEED deputy executive director, Atty. Avril de Torres, spoke at the “Driving Rural Electrification with Solar” panel of the said event and highlighted the state of electrification in the country which leaves many communities, in both rural and urban areas, still without access to electricity.

“According to the 40th EPIRA report, Household Electrification Level is at 95%, with NPC-SPUG having the lowest electrification rate at 76% for missionary areas. Although it seems like a small percentage of unelectrified communities, we must put this into context. It’s been more than two decades since the enactment of the EPIRA, which had the goal of total electrification, yet there are many communities without electricity, and those that do have access to electricity are burdened with high prices. Intensifying changes in our climate, like the terribly warm weather we are experiencing this summer, dictate that allowing some of our countrymen to keep having no electricity access should not be an option,” de Torres stressed.

Even before the Russia and Ukraine war, the Philippines already had the most electricity rates in Asia, second only to Japan, according to CEED.

At present, power rates have nearly doubled compared to the same period last year accordingly.

“Amid skyrocketing power rates, this assertion to move forward affordable and reliable people’s renewable energy is extremely timely. The government would do well to prioritize existing renewable energy policies such as the Green Energy Option Program (GEOP) and Rules for Distributed Energy Resources (DER) and even the President himself has said that he is bent on shifting to renewable energy,” added de Torres.

The call for energy democracy should be focused, they said.

“Instead of steering us yet to another detour through fossil gas and other questionable technologies, we should heed the call of the Filipinos whose cry for energy democracy has always been stifled,” de Torres added. —  (FREEMAN)