THE Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Thursday signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to jointly assist interested developers of offshore wind (OSW) technology.
DOE and DENR officials said the MOA pertains on the authority to grant access to offshore areas covered by OSW energy service contracts for the conduct of pre-development and exploration activities.
“With this MOA, we hope, that our continued partnership with the DOE will provide guidance to the developers, and assist them, and ensure that their predevelopment exploration activities, and the eventual operation are within our environmental laws, rules, and regulations, and within the best international practice,” said DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga during the Business-to-Business Matching Event to Support Energy Transition Thursday morning.
Loyzaga said her office is committed to support the DOE as DENR, she said, recognized the interest in exploring the vast opportunities within the power sector.
“This agreement is not just a document signifying our commitment towards more sustainable energy future, but it is a testament to our collaborative spirit in this government to provide renewable energy alternatives, while promoting environmental stewardship and shared responsibility in every stage of development and eventual operation,” added Loyzaga.
During the exploration development for OSW, Loyzaga noted that there could be a significant impact on the environment given that the installation, operation, and decommissioning that can potentially cause some disruption and threaten marine, terrestrial, and socioeconomic environments. “This is why it is essential that we work together and support each other in this endeavor,” she added.
DENR Undersecretary Analiza Teh said the agency would issue guidelines focusing on the development phase to help facilitate applications that are up for environmental impact review.
“Renewable energy is new for the department, especially for the Environmental Management Bureau, so we acknowledge the need to undertake a massive capacity development for our central office and regional offices for the review of the ECC [Environmental Compliance Certificate] for the compliance and monitoring,” she said.
Teh added: In terms of our timeline, we will be meeting with DOE Undersecretary Sharon Garin and Natus Rodriguez of DENR just to make sure that we’re in sync in terms of the implementation of the new guidelines…. In May 2024, we will be issuing the enhanced guidelines for the development and construction and operation and the commissioning stage.”
She clarified that the agency intends to issue soon two environmental compliance certificates. One is for the predevelopment stage and another for the development stage.
“The idea is, during the pre-development stage, all inputs for the requirements for the full-blown EIA [environmental impact assessment] during the development stage will come in. We will be guiding the developers so that we can all be able to comply with the environmental laws, rules and regulations,” said Teh.
Image credits: Wang Song | Dreamstime.com