“Watt’s Next? The Future of Renewable Energy” was the 10th session of Weekly with John Clements held on April 13, 2023. The main guest speaker was Francis Giles Puno, President and COO of First Gen, a leading Lopez-led renewable firm. He was joined by Atty. Jose Layug, Sr Partner of Divina Law Offices and President of the Developers of Renewable Energy for Advancement (DREAM), and Dennis Ibarra, current General Manager of Berkeley Energy Commercial Industrial Solutions (BECIS).
Puno, a renowned visionary and former investment banker for 8 years, was asked to lead the largest producer of renewable energy. First Gen has a portfolio of power plants with installed capacity of 3,495 megawatts, generating 20% of the country’s electric supply. The company continues to lead the country towards a decarbonized energy system with 100% low carbon and renewable energy assets. Among them are Natural Gas (58%), Geothermal (34%), Wind/Solar (4%) and Hydro (4%).
Through the years, First Gen has strongly advocated programs and business models countering what are considered as existential climate threats. Even before concerns about climate change came up, the company proactively initiated ways and means in their climate change advocacy. During that time, while a shift towards lower carbon emitting solutions was happening, it was indeed an uphill climb to get support particularly from the government.
Today, however, there is a real change in the tide with stakeholders, banks, government, investors– even competitors and customers– rallying behind reducing their carbon emissions, stopping in building coal-fired power plants, and shifting investments towards favoring renewable. According to Puno, government support was evident in various means: (1) via committing to 75% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030; (2) DOE’s coal moratorium policy; and (3) supporting Clean Energy Transition through financial commercial mechanism from the likes of ADB, etc.
But amidst the role of gas as a complementary fuel to renewable energy, the Malampaya field in Palawan will experience depletion by 1st qtr. of 2027. This means that there will be less sufficient fuel supply in our existing gas-fired power since the country has been benefitting from Malampaya gas for the last 20 years.
In response to the expected depletion of Malampaya gas and increased power from natural gas, Puno cited that the company in partnership with Tokyo Gas, a pioneer in LNG, is constructing an interim LNG offshore terminal costing around $300M. Currently the terminal, located in the First Gen Clean Energy Complex in Batangas, is substantially complete.
According to Puno, First Gen continues to be a strong believer of renewable energy – that the role of geothermal energy plays in the country’s energy system is the only renewable energy source, unlike solar and wind, which has the ability to supply power 24/7.
Given this, Puno is hopeful that there is continued and stronger support, particularly in the regulatory environment supporting the creation of opportunities for renewable energy such as Green Energy Auction Program (GEAP), Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) Retail Market, reserve markets, and WESM Mindanao.
Puno espouses more urgent climate action as the energy transition journey will offer many opportunities to unlock and capture new value through the carbonized business models. Hence, it will require collaboration among all industries as they will play critical roles in enabling a cleaner and better future.
Reacting to the presentation of Puno, Atty. Layug agreed that we should have taken the lead and plunged earlier in utilizing energy transition to avoid forced outages and problems in energy supply and demand. Atty. Layug particularly stressed the need to change our energy sustainability approach and shift to renewable energy sources or BIGSHOW – Biomass (bagasse), Geothermal Resource, Solar Energy, Hydro Power, Ocean Energy, and Wind Resource.
Atty. Layug cited the importance of going into renewable– lower electricity expenses, less dependence on fossil fuels, endlessly available, and lower carbon emissions.
Similarly, Dennis Ibarra supplemented the initiatives of Puno and insights of Atty Layug on energy transition. As GM of Berkeley Energy Commercial Industrial Solutions (BECIS), “a leading Energy as a Service (EaaS)” provider, his company constructs, operates and owns distributed energy solutions such as load control, energy analytics, bioenergy, heat recovery, storage, onsite solar and cooling.
Servicing various industries in Asia, Ibarra shared his beliefs that decarbonization, decentralization, and digitalization of energy are the keys to enabling companies in achieving sustainable operations.
Overall, the session was an interesting and enlightening glimpse into the future of the country’s eventual transition to a renewable energy system.
This is just an overview of these informative and expert lectures. You can stream the entire Watt’s Next? The Future of Renewable Energy event here on our Facebook page.
