The Department of Energy (DOE) is in talks to finalize an agreement with the Asian Development Bank for a funding facility to support geothermal projects and establish a geothermal resource de-risking facility (GDRF).
“We’re very happy to tell you that finally maybe we’ll have a loan from the Asian Development Bank just to do that. Geothermal cost is very high at the beginning, but after the 20-year period when the loan has been paid for the capital, it will become very cheap,” DOE Undersecretary Rowena Guevara said during the 3rd Ruperto R. Alonzo Lecture titled The Energy Trilemma: An Analysis of the Philippine Situation.
The GDRF is seen help to unlock the country’s untapped geothermal potential estimated at 4,000 megawatts towards becoming the world’s biggest geothermal producer anew. The Philippines is the world’s third biggest geothermal producer next to Indonesia (second) and the US (first).
“We hope that it will be finalized this year,” Guevara said when asked then the ADB financing would materialize.
The DOE previously said it was looking at a $250-million GDRF with ADB.