New energy roadmap set for release this year

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Energy (DOE) targets to release within the year a new energy roadmap up to 2050.

The country’s current energy plan covers only up to 2040.

“The latest Philippine Energy Plan that we have right now covers the year 2020 to 2040. We are updating this plan to expand the planning horizon up to 2050 and we need to consider many developments,” DOE director for Energy Policy and Planning Bureau Michael Sinocruz said.

“We’re going to have a planning conference to set the targets for the next Philippine energy plan, hopefully to be released before end of this year,” he said.

Sinocruz said the updated plan would map out the direction as to where the country’s energy sector wants to be at in the future.

He said the new roadmap would also take into consideration the challenges that the energy sector faces.

The DOE official said to be included in the updated energy plan “will be the impact of nuclear in the mix in terms of reducing the country’s carbon dioxide emission in terms of costs, among others.”

Nuclear energy is among the technologies being explored by the Philippines, but it is still considered as a long term option for power generation.

“We’re going to update all of these, whether there is a need for us to increase the share of renewable energy from what we set as a target in the Philippine Energy Plan, which is 35 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040,” Sinocruz said.

Under the Philippine Energy Plan 2020 to 2040, the DOE has set a target to increase the renewable energy share in the power generation mix to 35 and 50 percent by 2030 and 2040, respectively.

Sinocruz said the Philippine Energy Plan presents the main energy scenario that serves as the pathway toward the country’s goal of achieving clean and sustainable future.