THE Department of Energy (DOE) said that the country needs some 52.83 gigawatts of renewable energy (RE) capacity by 2040.

According to the DOE, they hiked the renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to 2.52 percent.

DOE Assistant Secretary Mylene Capongcol said at the Philippine Electric Power Industry Forum 2024 at the Iloilo Convention Center that the required RE capacity will be equivalent to 175 terawatt hours of RE generation.

In explaining the situation, Capongcol noted that the required RE capacity in 2040 under the increased RPS is seven times the current level of 8.26 GW.

Under DOE’s Department Circular No. 2022-09-0030 which was signed by Secretary Raphael Lotilla in September 2022, it tasked the utility companies to increase the mandated minimum portion of energy from renewable sources from 1 percent to 2.52 percent in 2023.

It coincides with the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP) in order to reach the country’s goal of higher RE shares to the energy mix by 2040 to 50 percent.

Capongcol noted that the DOE is looking to have a RE capacity by 2040 will come from solar technology at 27.16 GW, followed by wind at 16.65 GW, hydro at 6.15 GW, geothermal at 2.5 GW, and 364 megawatts from biomass.

“As of January 2024, we were able to award 1,282 contracts with an equivalent potential capacity of 130.3 gigawatts, and out of these we have already constructed and installed, some of them operationalized around 6 gigawatts of renewable energy,” she added.