Purged renewable energy projects offered to investors
Purging inactive renewable energy projects opens fresh opportunities as more investors line up to enter the Philippine market, according to Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Sharon Garin.
The energy chief, who attended the Asia Clean Energy Summit 2025 in Singapore last month, said that many investors had expressed a desire to build clean power assets in the Philippines.
“We’re telling them we’re purging and trying to clean up, and there will be other areas that are more interesting that are not moving,” she told reporters recently.
Garin said that the agency continues its crackdown on stagnant projects.
In 2024, the DOE began weeding out idle renewable energy projects, starting with about 105 producers.
Officials, however, could not provide updated figures on the number of developers and the total capacity of terminated contracts.
“We’ll continue to purge. We’re just giving them the due process, the notice, the show-cause orders and all that. If the projects are not moving, then they should not be holding those contracts,” Garin said.
Earlier, the DOE said it was studying a new mechanism that could speed up the revival of renewable energy contracts. This would be faster compared to the usual open and competitive selection process.
More power investments from abroad
Meanwhile, Garin said that foreign investors’ appetite in the Philippine power sector remains resilient despite the ongoing corruption issues surrounding government projects.
Her visit to Singapore had proven this, she said.
“That’s shown by the many meetings we’ve had with many investors from all over the world wanting to invest in the Philippines,” she said earlier.
“So I think it’s still very positive, and I don’t think it’s anything to worry about as far as energy is concerned,” Garin said.
Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella also noted that there was a growing interest in the country’s upstream petroleum sector. This followed the signing in October of eight new service contracts worth about $207 million.
