DOE, LandBank launch $170-million geothermal de-risking facility

The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Land Bank of the Philippines have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to launch the $170-million Philippine Geothermal Resource De-Risking Facility (PGRDF), a strategic mechanism aimed at accelerating early-stage geothermal exploration by sharing associated risks and costs.

Supported by a sovereign loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to the Philippine government, the PGRDF is designed to address the major barriers to geothermal development: the high upfront costs and inherent uncertainty of exploration and initial drilling.

By mitigating this risk at the earliest and most capital-intensive stages, the program will allow developers to drill exploration wells with greater confidence and advance new greenfield prospects.

DOE Secretary Sharon Garin called the facility a targeted intervention to unlock indigenous, reliable and low-carbon energy resources at scale.

“Geothermal development requires significant investment long before a single kilowatt is delivered to consumers,” Garin said.

“Through the PGRDF government is helping de-risk the exploration stage so that viable prospects can move faster from resource confirmation to project development,” she said.

The partnership between DOE and LandBank is expected to strengthen the country’s ability to expand its clean and dependable power supply, support energy security and advance a just and sustainable energy transition that benefits Filipino communities.

Under the MOA, the DOE will serve as the executing agency, setting policy direction, governance, technical standards and eligibility criteria, and providing overall program oversight.

LandBank will act as the facility administrator and manager, overseeing subloan applications, milestone-based funding releases, collections and program reporting.

Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara, who supervises the country’s renewable energy program, expects the PGRDF to accelerate geothermal capacity additions beyond the Philippine Energy Plan (PEP) 2023–2050 reference scenario by unlocking more viable prospects.

“By de-risking exploration and enabling more projects to move from uncertainty to confirmation, we are widening the pipeline of investible geothermal opportunities, strengthening the resilience of our power system and reducing our exposure to volatile imported fuel prices,” Guevara said.

The MOA was signed during the 2025 Sustainable Energy Awards on Tuesday by Garin and LandBank president and chief executive Ma. Lynette Ortiz, and witnessed by Guevara and LandBank senior vice president Charlotte Conde.