DOE allays offshore wind investors’ worries over DENR policy
By Alena Mae S. Flores – February 22, 2024, 8:00 pm
from manilastandard.net
Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla
Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla on Thursday assured offshore wind (OSW) stakeholders that the new order of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) pertaining to the issuance of the environmental compliance certificate will not create undue delay.
This followed the signing of the memorandum of agreement between the DOE and the DENR at the sidelines of the business-to-business matching event, which Lotilla said “actually simplifies the process for the issuance for the pre-development stage environmental clearance certificate.”
The DENR recently published Administrative Order 2024-02 on the interim guidelines for EC under the Philippine Environmental Impact Statement (PISS) of OSW energy projects.
The DAO prescribes the procedures and requirements for the issuance of the ECC, requiring developers to secure an ECC under a special/streamlined procedure for the pre-development stage.
It listed the requirements for ECC compliance, including data gathering and research to determine the appropriateness of the OSW site.
“This is the first time that we are going into offshore wind, whether its fixed bottom with anchors at the seabed or floating so part of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources is also building its capability in order to address this,” Lotilla said.
“So the first stage, which is the predevelopment stage, because each of this service contract, the developers would need at least two years of wind data so that’s part of the pre-development stage and that’s what DENR is trying to facilitate by clearly indicating what would be needed in the pre-development stage,” he said.
The DAO also provides for a separate “full-blown” environmental impact assessment study as requirement to secure an ECC under the development, construction and operation stage.
“The development stage will have a greater impact on the marine environment and they (DENR) will also be requiring more in the development stage. The requirements for that are not in place yet but what we have now is in the pre-development so they can proceed into their studies,” Lotilla said.
The DOE said it is helping streamline the process to ensure that OSW are built within their target timeline of 2028.
DENR Undersecretary Analiza Teh said an enhanced guideline would be issued to focus on the development stage and provide more guidance to the developers to facilitate their application for under the environmental impact assessment system.
“Just to clarify, yes there will be two environmental compliance certificates. Application one during the predevelopment stage, but it will be under a streamlined process,” Teh said.
She said the processing for pre-development stage could be completed in 20 days and the ECC for the development stage, 40 days if all the requirements are completed.
“The idea is during the predevelopment stage all inputs for the requirements for the full blown EIA during the development stage will come in…Anyway, we will be guiding the developers so that we can all be able to comply with the environmental laws, rules and regulations. And then by September when we have the MSP [marine spatial planning] tool and permitting, we will do the capacity building not only for the EIA but also marine spatial planning,” Teh said.
