A large business delegation from Denmark will be coming to the Philippines over the next two months to explore potential investment opportunities.
Danish Ambassador Jan Top Christensen said 15 companies, at the most, will be in the country in December and January next year to look into the country’s energy, fisheries and health-care sectors.
According to Christensen, Danish energy companies will focus on energy efficiency and provide the government with suggestions on how to transition to clean energy.
“They’re going to discuss how to consume the best energy. For the Philippines, it is not only the question of producing energy but it is also in a way producing in a smarter way and building in a smarter way, so you do not consume as much energy as you do today,” Christensen said.
He added: “And this is what these companies are specialist in. They are coming to explain what they can do to use less energy when you produce.”
Christensen said cleaner energy options are ripe in the Philippines. He said there is potential for more than 10,000 megawatts that can be produced through renewables.
With more technology on wind and solar energy being developed and more competition in the market lowering the cost of clean energy, Christensen said this is the best time for the Philippines to invest.
“There is huge potential in this country for much more and you are in the situation where the technology for wind and solar are being developed at an exponential level where the coal, the old-fashioned coal-powered stations cannot follow,” he said, while explaining that coal is a source of pollution and will soon be outdated.
He argued that, if price and health is factored in how energy is produced, coal would be a rough and primitive comparison.
“I am sure that this country would soon move toward that [clean energy],” Christensen added.
Christensen said he sees the Philippines adapting more to clean-energy options in the next 10 to 20 years, saying that the country’s other forms of renewables, like hydro and thermal energy, also hold a lot of potential.
“Right now you are in a transition phase and I understand that you see the necessity of having these coal-powered stations, but I also see the huge potential for the country. You have a lot of hydro and thermos energy but you also have a lot of biowaste and biomass. That is a huge potential in this country,” he said.
Christensen sees the energy mix in the Philippines radically different in a few years.