REVIEW OF ENERGY CONVERSION SYSTEMS IN VIEW OF

PHILIPPINES SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

I
Sustainable development, as defined in Brundtland report, “is a development which meets the needs
of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. It demands
the humanity to make decisions today that will safeguard the future.
Sustainable development is a concept based on three-pillar model initially proposed by the
economist René Passet in 1979. “Ecology”, “economy” and “society” are considered interconnected and
the goal is to reach sustainability of one without jeopardizing the other.
In 2015, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), together with 170 member countries
created a plan called “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”. It is a set of 17 goals that is needed to be
achieved by 2030, which mainly aims to get rid of poverty and hunger, and keep humanity safe from the
worst effects of climate change (UNDP, 2015).
In 2017, National Economic and Development Authority launched the Philippine Development
Plan (PDP) 2017-2022 that geared towards realizing “AmBisyon Natin 2040”, a collective vision of over
the next 25 years that aspires a “matatag, maginhawa, at panatag na buhay” for every Filipinos (NEDA,
2017).
SGD and AmBisyon Natin 2040 both aim to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all
people enjoy peace and prosperity. However, the latter is more focused on ensuring financially-stable,
healthy and safe society through a globally competitive economy.
Economic development is often in conflict with environment protection, as industrialization results
to increased pollution and depletion of natural resources. It has been a lifelong debate to how economic
development and environment protection can both be satisfied in order to attain sustainable development.
II
IPCC’s Special Report on Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation (2011)
stressed that sustainable energy needs to be stable and have low environmental impact. Multiple options
are actually available for reducing GHG emissions from energy system while still satisfying the demand.
Some ways cited in IPCC report are energy conservation and increasing efficiency of energy conversion
and transport, shift from high-GHG energy carriers such as coal and oil to lower GHG carriers such as
natural gas, renewable energy sources and nuclear fuels, and carbon capture and storage (CSS).
While use of CCS technology and nuclear fuels is still a “possibility” in the country, the shift to
natural gas is one of the opportunities which interest the government. According to PEP 2017-2040, the
expected share of energy supply from natural gas shall increase from 6.1% in 2016 to 12.4% by 2040.
Shift to Natural Gas
Natural gas is composed mainly of methane. As a fossil fuel, it therefore emits CO2 when it is
burned to produce energy. Fossil fuels, like coal and oil, have a negative reputation in view of sustainable
development since it contribute to the large quality of GHG and pollutant emissions. But natural gas, in
contrary, is considered as a clean and green source of energy, as it has the following advantages in
comparison to its solid and liquid counterpart (IFRI: Center for Energy, 2015):
  Lower Sulphur dioxide (SO2) emissions which is responsible for acid rain
 Lower Nitrogen oxide (NOx) emission which is responsible for urban smog
 Lower particulate matter (PM) emissions which is responsible for health and visibility problems
 Lower Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions which is responsible for climate change
But with the Malampaya field running out by 2025, maintaining a stable LNG supply could be a
problem in the near future. In October 2017, the government has released a circular called Philippine
Natural Gas Regulation (PNGR) in order to develop natural gas industry in the Philippines into a matured
market enabling the country to achieve greater energy security and sustainability. One of the policies of
PNGR is the development of the Philippines as LNG trading and transshipment hub within the Asia-Pacific
Region, promoting natural gas as the energy fuel which has tremendous potential to satisfy increasing
demand.
The first LNG hub in the Philippines in Pagbilao, Quezon has already been commissioned last 2016.

Shift to Renewable Energy

In December 2008, Philippine has enacted Republic Act No. 9513, known as Renewable Energy
Act of 2008 with the objective of accelerating the exploration and development of renewable energy
resources such as, biomass, solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and ocean energy sources to reduce the country's
dependence on fossil fuels and thereby minimizing the country's exposure to price fluctuations in the
international markets.
In order to promote the uptake of renewable energy technologies, RE law offers fiscal incentives
such as income tax holiday, duty free importation of machinery and materials, zero percent VAT, and the
Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) scheme to reduce the cost-related barriers for investors (Rosellon, 2017). In FIT
scheme, participating developers of RE projects are assured fixed payments from all renewable energy
source for 20 years.
A decade after the implementation of R.A. 9513, installed additional RE capacity has significantly
increased –1,916 MW for geothermal, 3618 MW for hydropower, 353 MW for biomass energy, 427 MW
for wind power and 768 for solar power–based on Department of Energy (DOE) as mentioned in Philippine
Energy Plan 2017-2040.
Geothermal, hydropower, biomass energy and solar power has already exceeded their targets that
is supposed to due 2020 – 1,320 MW, 3502 MW, 276.7 MW and 274 MW, respectively. While wind power
and ocean power is still lagging behind their targets of 1903 MW and 35.5 MW, respectively.
The current goal of the Philippines, as stated in PEP 2017-2040, is to increase installed capacity
from 17,000 MW (December 2016) to at least 20,000 MW, and complete compliance with Biofuels Act of
2006 (R.A. 9367), by 2040.
Department of Energy (DOE) aimed to further develop renewable energy production and use in
the country. Their implementation plan includes researches and promotion of low-enthalpy geothermal
areas for power generation, harmonization of DOE related program with agro-forestry policy for integrated
use of biomass, among others.
In comparison to other energy source in the country, renewable energy accounts 37% of the total
primary energy supply in the country in 2016, and is planned to be around 22.6% by 2040. Hence, while
increase in renewable energy capacity is expected, the government will still be relying on non-renewable
sources to boost primary energy supply in years to come.
Geothermal
Philippines is second largest geothermal energy producer in the world in terms of installed capacity
next to United States due to the country’s location in the Ring of Fire. Hot springs, volcanoes, fumaroles
and solfataras could indicate the presence of geothermal resource in an area.
Geothermal energy came from the heat in the interior of the Earth which is a result of radioactive
disintegration of atomic nuclei. In cases where geothermal energy is in the form of steam, heat sources can
be easily utilized by the means of Brayton cycle. However in most regions, geothermal energy is in the
form of heat-containing rock which requires further process to be used (Sorensen, 2004).
Geothermal projects have high upfront investment costs (IPCC, 2012) since geothermal energy is
considered a mineral resource, thus upstream geothermal activities are necessary to start a geothermal
power project. These activities include the exploration of geothermal areas which involves a drilling
program and a well field construction and extraction of steam from the area (Board of Investments, 2010):
Geothermal is a relatively mature renewable energy source and is used for base load electric
generation in the country. It comprises to 17.9% of the total primary supply in the Philippines in 2016
(DOE, 2017).
Most of the country’s high enthalpy geothermal resources have already been developed into
commercial operations, while low enthalpy geothermal resources remained utilized. DOE is currently
implementing locally-funded projects called “Detailed Resource Assessment of Selected Low-Enthalpy
Geothermal Areas in the Philippines” and “Comprehensive Resource Assessment of Philippine Low-
Enthalpy Geothermal Areas” that aims to explore and evaluate low to medium enthalpy geothermal areas
in the country, with a temperature ranging from 90˚C to 150˚C that might be suitable for power generation
(DOE, 2016).
Advantages of geothermal energy includes the following, according to IPCC (2016):
 Significantly lesser CO2 emissions. Life cycle assessment (LCA) studies estimate that full lifecycle
CO2-equivalent emissions for geothermal energy technologies are less than 50 g CO2eq/kWhe for
flash steam geothermal power plants which is comparatively lower than reference electricity mix
dominated by fossil fuel sources.
 Does not compete with industrial and residential water use. Water is not a limiting factor for
geothermal power generation, since geothermal fluids are usually. Flash power yields condensed
water that can that be used for agricultural and industrial purposes.
However, it shall be noted that micro-earth-quakes, hydrothermal steam eruptions and ground
subsidence can occur due to geothermal plant operation, but these hazards can be mitigated proper
geological risk assessment.

Hydropower
Rivers, lakes, waterfalls, irrigation canals, springs, ponds and other water bodies are potential
resource of hydropower.
 Hydropower is the extracted potential energy of dammed water that is harnessed using water
turbine coupled to a generator to produce electricity. Hydropower plants are classified based on their
capacities, as follows (Board of Investments, 2010):
 Micro-hydro - 1 to 100 kW
 Mini-hydro - 101 kW to 10 MW
 Large hydro - more than 10 MW
Large hydropower is also used for base load electric generation in the country. Hydropower
comprises to 3.8% of the total primary supply in the Philippines in 2016 (DOE, 2017).
In remote areas, micro hydro could be utilized as standalone source of power. The micro hydro
development program of the DOE prioritizes the inventory of the resources to optimize their uses and study
the possibility of interconnection via mini-grid systems (DOE, 2016).
Advantages of hydropower includes the following, according to IPCC (2016):
 Significantly lesser CO2 emissions. Unlike other non-fossil fuel resource, hydropower does not
require combustion that results into GHG emissions. The majority of lifecycle GHG emission
estimates for hydropower is between 4 and 14 g CO2eq/kWhe.
 Water can be used in other purpose. Hydropower plants do not consume the water that drives the
turbines. Dams help to prevent or mitigate floods and droughts, and provide the possibility to irrigate
agriculture, supply water for domestic, municipal and industrial use, and can improve conditions for
navigation, fishing, tourism or leisure activities.

Like geothermal energy, hydropower projects also have high upfront investment costs due to civil
construction costs and additional investment costs associated with planning, environmental impact analysis,
licensing, fish and wildlife mitigation, recreation mitigation, historical and archaeological mitigation and
water quality monitoring and mitigation (IPCC, 2012) to reduce the environmental and societal impact of
constructing hydropower plants.
Present technologies on hydropower being applied and used on river systems in the country may
need augmentation and future development. To address these issues, government aimed to provide technical
assistance to lower investment cost and further RE technology research and development studies (DOE,
2017).
Biomass
Biomass refers to a non-fossilized and biodegradable organic material. Being an agricultural
country, Philippines has many source of biomass such as bagasse, rice hull, coconut husks and shells, wood
chips/residues.
Biomass technologies utilized in the Philippines vary from the use of bagasse as boiler fuel for
cogeneration, rice/coconut husks dryers for crop drying, biomass gasifiers for mechanical and electrical
applications, fuelwood and agricultural wastes for oven, kiln, furnace and cook-stoves for cooking and
heating purposes (Zafar, 2018).
Landfill waste is another source of biomass as urban centers like in Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao
dispose substantial volumes of biodegradable domestic wastes. Several waste-to-energy projects that use
methane gas generated and captured from the landfills (Board of Investments, 2010).
 Biomass is used for base load electric generation in the country during “availability of feedstock”.
It comprises 14.1% of the total primary supply in the Philippines in 2016 (DOE, 2016).
According to FAO (2009), biomass is considered a carbon dioxide neutral fuel as it produces net
zero CO2 emission. Aside from reduction of GHG emission, one of the most important advantage of using
biomass for energy is its contribution to diversification of a country’s energy mix. It reduces the reliance
on imported fuel.
However use of traditional biomass poses threat on pollution and health. Burning of wood and
charcoal in an open fire an inefficient way of harnessing its energy. Combustion using this method is
incomplete leading to emission of pollutant, such carbon monoxide and other compounds that may cause
respiratory diseases.

Solar Energy
Solar energy is derived from solar radiation which is converted into useful electrical or thermal
energy. Solar power systems has two types: Photovoltaic (PV) and Concentrating Solar Power (CSP)
systems. As there is no CSP systems yet in the Philippines, the generated solar energy is from PV systems.
In a PV system, solar energy is converted into an electrical energy using polycrystalline silicon solar panels
exposed on a wide area (Board of Investments, 2010).
Solar energy is used for peak load electric generation in the country. Together with wind energy,
comprises 0.3% of the total primary supply in the country in 2016 (DOE, 2016).
Net-metering is a common scheme for PV systems in the Philippines. Net-metering allows
customers to install on-site solar energy facility (i.e. Solar Roof-tops) to generate electricity for the users to
consume and sell the excess. This scheme can contribute to sustainable development in many ways:
 Protects consumers in rising electricity price and generates savings
 Reduce carbon emissions associated with burning of fossil fuel
 Lessens the over-all dependency of the country on imported fossil fuel
However promising the net-metering scheme on solar energy facility could be, several barriers has
been preventing the development of PV system in the market such as rules and processes during the PV
development process – permitting process as well as the grid connection process– to be more specific
(Brückmann, 2013), aside from the high investment cost. These barriers must be addressed by the
government to tap the vast potential of solar energy the Philippines.

III
Natural gas, geothermal energy, hydropower, biomass energy and solar energy, and their
conversion technologies were considered in this report in view of sustainable development in the
Philippines. The concept of shifting to 100% renewable energy is indeed the most desirable way of ensuring
environmental protection. However for a developing country like Philippines, the need of sufficient energy
supply and access is also as important to guarantee growth in economy in order to generate more jobs, more
income – elevating the standard of living of Filipinos.
The decision to use natural gas, which has lesser environmental impact than coal and oil, but less
expensive than renewable energy, is a good strategy to ensure lower electricity cost and maintaining low
GHG emission at the moment. However, once the country has already achieved that level of “katatagan”,
“kaginhawaan”, at “kapanatagan”, complete shift to renewable energy should be the next national target.
Citing the work of Ravago et al. (2017), using fossil-based fuel (which is cheaper) is not the most
recommended method of increasing power generation of the country, but rather the establishment and
implementation of government policies and investment in transmission expansion to attract private
investments on renewable energy. Also, the investment in research and development to develop untapped
energy resources like ocean and nuclear energy.

Prepared by:
Alnie Demoral
April 25, 2018
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