Philippines pushes for renewable energy

The Philippine government is intensifying its promotion of investments in renewable energy sources to reduce the country’s dependence on costly fossil fuel, lessen its import bills and channel savings from such foregone imports to local industries and employment generation. This strategy, government officials said, will help the Philippines cope better with the global financial crisis, which has gripped the market economies not only of developed countries but those of developing countries as well. The Philippines is a leadingproducer of geothermal energy with an installed power generation capacity of 1.958 megawatts (MW). This was boosted by the start of operations last July 2008 of three geothermal service contracts in Biliran, Leyte; Amacan, Compostela Valley and Mabini, Batangas that generate a combined capacity of 100 MW of electricity (April 3, 2009)