DOE now evaluating 18 renewable energy projects

At least 18 new proposals for renewable energy projects involving ocean or marine-powered technology are under evaluation by the Department of Energy (DOE). "We're happy to now see 18 ocean technology applicants. Ideally, we want to see a lot more because we have so much sea and islands based here," Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said Thursday. Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan is studying the proposals that require testing the technology and cost-benefit analysis of each project. "We still have to evaluate. We have to make sure that their technologies will work here. We need to look at economics and the financials. We need to look at the costs of energy to see if it will be beneficial to the government and the consumers," Marasigan said. "The most prospective potential that we have would be more on the marine or ocean technology. We are an archipelago. We have more waters than land. So why not tap those resources if you have more waters than land," he said. The DOE has approved the project of Deep Ocean Power Philippines Inc., a Filipino and American joint venture, to build the first ocean power facility in the country starting 2012. Deep Ocean will place two ocean-run power facilities in Panay and Mindoro with a capacity of 10 to 20 megawatts (MW) each. Of the 87 signed service contracts in renewable energy (RE), the Deep Ocean project is so far the sole ocean-based power technology the department had approved. DOE data showed that the ocean-energy resource potential of the Philippines was 170,000 MW – the biggest so far in the list of RE resources that could be harnessed in the country – including wind resource potential (76,600 MW), hydropower (10,500 MW), geothermal (790 MW), biomass (235.7 MW). —VS, GMANews.TV