The Department of Energy (DOE) is ramping up efforts to enforce stricter timelines for renewable energy (RE) projects, initiating a second round of reviews targeting contracts that have failed to meet critical development milestones. The move comes after the DOE’s October announcement that 105 RE contracts, awarded yet in 2017 and 2019, were under review due to significant delays in their pre-development stage.
Energy undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara said during a briefing in Taguig City Wednesday that the DOE is still finalizing the scope of the second batch of delayed projects, which could involve hundreds of additional contracts. She explained that the agency is reviewing over 1,400 renewable energy service contracts and wants to remove inactive or stalled projects to free up areas for more capable developers.
“We don’t have the numbers yet because, at this point in time, we have over 1,400 renewable energy service contracts,” Guevara said. “We want to ensure that those that are not moving can be removed, so others can apply for those areas. But we cannot open these areas unless we terminate the projects that have been assigned to them.”
The first batch of reviewed contracts includes a mix of solar (53), hydropower (17), wind (10), geothermal (5), and biomass (3) projects. The delays are attributed to various challenges, including failure to secure possessory rights or conduct necessary system impact studies. Of these, 88 projects are significantly behind schedule or entirely stalled.
Despite these setbacks, DOE chief Raphael Lotilla emphasized that such actions are crucial to ensuring the long-term success and sustainability of the country’s RE sector. He argued that the review process is not designed to discourage investments but to foster more serious, capable developers.
“It would encourage more serious investments in the RE sector,” Lotilla said. “If projects are not moving, we should allow those with the necessary technical, legal, and financial capabilities to develop them. If they remain idle, they become wasted assets that fail to serve the people.”
The DOE’s push for stricter compliance comes at a time when renewable energy accounts for 31.5 percent of the country’s power supply mix, with a total of 9,361 megawatts of on-grid installed capacity from hydro, geothermal, wind, biomass, and solar technologies, as of October 2024.
For consumers, this regulatory review could signal more reliable and timely investments in clean energy, potentially boosting the country’s energy security while minimizing unnecessary delays in project rollouts. However, it may also create short-term disruptions for developers, especially those who find their contracts terminated or delayed further due to non-compliance.
The DOE’s efforts are expected to intensify over the coming months as more projects face scrutiny, with stakeholders bracing for potential appeals from developers affected by the terminations.
