Philippines awards solar storage, wind power approvals

The Philippines has awarded more renewable energy projects to be built by 2029 under its fourth round of the Green Energy Auction (GEA-4), increasing capacity under the scheme from 9.4GW to nearly 10.2GW.

Eight more integrated solar and energy storage initiatives, along with two onshore wind projects, made the cut since the department of energy released a preliminary tally after the auction in September. Two new standalone solar farms — the most popular project type under GEA-4 — also received go-aheads (see table).

The Philippines is targeting 50pc renewable power generation by 2040 and has planned several rounds of auctions to drive development interest.

The number of winning bidders for GEA-4 rose to 123 after the latest approvals. The total awarded capacity is 96pc of the targeted 10.6GW. The "overwhelming response reflects the growing confidence of investors" in the Philippine renewables sector, the department of energy said late last week.

Ground-based solar projects made up nearly 4.2GW of successful bids. Floating and rooftop solar contributed another 2.3GW and 25MW of capacity respectively. Onshore wind totalled over 2.5GW, while integrated renewable power and energy storage initiatives have a combined 1.2GW capacity.

GEA-4 winners must submit performance bonds, system impact studies, and proof of financial obligations by early December.

Under the GEA programme, developers bid to deliver power into the Philippine national grids at the lowest cost possible. Operational projects can also issue renewable energy certificates to a national compliance market.

The department of energy is set to launch a GEA-5 round prioritising offshore wind this year, and another exercise for waste-to-energy projects in January 2026. Past GEA iterations have secured over 12GW of commitments across biomass, geothermal, solar, wind and hydropower.

By Liang Lei