The Energy Regulatory Commission released over the weekend the preliminary Green Energy Auction Reserve prices for the second round of the Green Energy Auction Program that will be conducted by the Department of Energy in June.
GEAR prices serve as the ceiling price for the GEAP 2 where DOE will offer a total capacity of 11,600 megawatts in renewable energy installation target, with 3,600 MW for 2024, 3,600 MW for 2025 and 4,400 MW for 2026.
The ERC generally set lower rates for GEAP-2 compared to GEAP-1 except for wind and biomass. “Solar is higher in GEAR-2 preliminary. Wind is lower this year because its capacity factor has improved,” ERC chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta said.
The agency set the GEAR price for different solar technologies: rooftop solar at P4.7156 per kilowatt-hour, ground-mounted solar at P4.2395 per kWh and floating solar at P4.7565 per kWh.
It also set the GEAR price for wind at P5.9823 per kWh and biomass P5.1475 per kWh but set aside the waste-to-energy, which will be posted at a later time prior to the commencement of the public consultations. Alena Mae S. Flores