‘Flexibility key to hitting RE goals of PHL’
BY LENIE LECTURA – SEPTEMBER 15, 2022
from Business Mirror
Wärtsilä Energy is proposing the adoption of flexible and scalable balancing solutions to enable the country to reach net zero by 2050.
The Philippines has not yet declared a net zero target, but its National Renewable Energy Program (NREP) sets out plans to power the grid with a 35 percent share of renewables by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.
In an online briefing held Wednesday, company officials said a combination of renewable energy (RE) plus flexibility, provided by balancing engines and energy storage, can reliably meet the Luzon grid’s increasing power demand.
It said that flexibility, in the form of energy storage and balancing engines, is the crucial technological fix to enable RE to become the dominant source of power.
Wärtsilä stressed that in order to put Luzon on course for its target of 35 percent renewables by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040, the island’s power system needs to rapidly accelerate the adoption of flexible balancing power plants, with 1.3 gigawatts (GW) needed by 2030. By 2050, 14 GW of balancing power plants and 69 GW of energy storage would be required in Luzon’s power sector to achieve net zero emissions.
“To align with the Philippines’s 35 percent renewable target, it should install 18 GW of solar capacity, 63 percent more than the 11 GW target set out in the country’s Power Development Plan (PDP). To support renewables, 6 GW of battery energy storage is needed by 2030,” it said.
Wärtsilä modelled two different scenarios: the Business As Usual (BAU) scenario—without an emissions limit—and a Net Zero scenario, where emissions were halved by 2040, before reaching net zero by 2050.
Citing a study, Wärtsilä said that with the right mix of balancing technology and renewables, Luzon can double the renewable generation in comparison to the BAU scenario, from 34 percent to 67 percent by 2040.
By 2050, renewables can reliably provide 87 percent of Luzon’s total generation, up from 18 percent in 2020.
David Kayanan, Wärtsilä Energy Financial and Market analyst, said the results of the study show that renewables can be leveled up using flexible capacity to serve the current load, while meeting rising power demand, and decarbonizing at the lowest cost.
“As countries return to the climate negotiations table at COP27, it’s clear that a net zero commitment in the Philippines would send a strong signal to investors, helping the country attract the needed investment to achieve this transition. On the flip side, without a net zero goal, the Philippines risks detaching itself from an increasingly climate-conscious global community and worsening its own exposure to climate change,” he said.
