Germany to aid Filipino renewable energy sector

MANILA, Philippines, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- Germany has offered to help the Philippines develop its renewable energy sector.

The Philippine Star reported Thursday that because of German government incentives, subsidies and regulation supporting RE development, a number of German companies have become technological leaders in the development of RE power sources, including wind energy, hydropower, solar energy, geothermal and biomass.

While the Philippines is currently the world's second-largest producer of geothermal energy, which meets 27 percent of the country's power requirements, because of the relatively high cost new RE sources of energy the Philippines is still largely dependent on traditional energy sources like coal.

The German-Filipino energy nexus is longstanding, as since 1994 German-owned Pazifik Power Inc. has serviced all the major power utilities in the Philippines, including Manila Electric Co.

Given the Philippines' geography, an estimated 4 million households in isolated communities remain unconnected to the country's electrical grid, and installing hundreds of miles of electrical cables is not financially viable for the country's power distributors. Accordingly, solar home systems have been identified to be the most power source for the off-grid communities.