THE Visayas and Mindanao present many opportunities for transitioning coal-fired power capacity to gas or renewable energy, Finnish power plant equipment maker Wärtsilä Oyj Abp said.
The Finnish company added that liquefied natural gas is a suitable as transition fuel compared with coal, which has “a messy environmental footprint.”
“The market can be broken down to three main islands. Most of the demand and generation is based here in Luzon. However, Visayas and Mindanao islands also have substantial demand,” Patrik Farkas, general manager for market development for the Middle East & Asia at Wärtsilä, said during the 4th Philippine Natural Gas Investment Summit on Tuesday.
Mr. Farkas noted, however, that the Visayas and Mindanao are most reliant on coal-fired power.
In 2023, 62% of power was supplied by coal-fired plants, the Department of Energy reported.
Wärtsilä equipment generates 74 gigawatts of power worldwide. The company has also delivered more than 80 energy storage systems to sites in 180 countries.
The company started operating in the Philippines 50 years ago.
“Over these five decades, we built more than 1.7 gigawatts of power generation capacity,” Mr. Farkas said. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera
