There’s been some good news on the renewable energy sector in recent months.

For one,  the City of Sydney, the biggest city in Australia, recently announced that is now powered by 100% renewable energy. This means that all public operations such as sports facilities, street lights, buildings, and the historic town hall in the city that’s home to 250,000 residents are running on clean energy starting July 1. The feat was made possible by a power purchase agreement (PPA) valued at $60 million, saving the city roughly half a million dollars annually over the next 10 years.

 Plus, there’s the United Kingdom (UK), which was able to generate almost half of its power needs from renewables in the first quarter of the year. The UK government data showed that renewable power made up 47% of the country’s electricity in the first three months of the year, breaking the previous set quarterly record of 39% in 2019. The substantial increase in the total renewable output of the UK was primarily driven by growth in power generated by wind farms and solar panels.

And RE sector’s record in the UK is likely to be broken in the coming years with the government’s plan for “a massive expansion of renewables as part of the UK’s green economic recovery” says Rebecca Williams, policy manager of RenwableUK, a non-profit renewable energy trade association.

Meanwhile, in the Philippines, the National Renewable Energy Board (NREB), recently reported that the renewable energy share in the power supply mix keeps on “dwindling.”

In 2015, renewable’s contribution to the supply generation mix was around 25%. RE’s share was even lower for 2016, 2017, and 2018 at 24.21%, 24.57%, and 23.38%, respectively. According to NREB Chairman Monalisa Dimalanta, renewable power’s share in 2019 was even lower at 21%.

In contrast, coal dominated the power mix, recording its highest share in 2018 at 52.05%.

As for the total installed capacity, the Philippines still is far from its target. Dimalanta notes that in 2019, RE capacity was only 5,000 megawatts (MW), more than 10,000 MW short of the 15,304 MW target by 2030.

But perhaps renewables contribution to the Philippines ’ power mix would be better in the following years. Hopefully, the government and the energy planners so engrossed in the faulty appreciation of the least cost method in power planning will finally appreciate what renewable power has to offer.

The COVID-19 has, after all, exposed the vulnerability of our energy sector. For a while, I was worried that Indonesia, the Philippines’ largest source of coal, would close its borders, thus putting our energy source at risk. Even the Energy Secretary has acknowledged that the coronavirus pandemic highlighted the need to ensure energy security by developing our indigenous resources.

Thankfully, the Indonesian government did not close its borders and stop the export of coal. But this pandemic should teach us valuable lessons, pushing us closer to clean energy transition. There’s a strong case for doing so given that experts have been saying that now is the best time to ramp up renewable energy development both locally and around the world.

For example, a policy paper, titled “Can COVID-19 spark an energy transition in the Philippines?” noted that this pandemic has provided an opportunity for the Philippines to pursue the development of more RE source more aggressively given that the lower coal generation due to the drop in power demand. 

The paper penned by Ateneo de Manila University economics department Associate Professor Majah-Leah Ravago and The University of Hawaii, Manoa economics department Professor Emeritus James Roumasset noted that “the rather dramatic fall in coal-fired generation may afford an opportunity for the Philippines to meet their renewable targets without resorting to costly subsidies.” 

The study noted that power demand dropped by 30% nationwide with coal generation decreasing from 56 to 48 %. On the other hand, generated energy from renewables remained the same with biomass and solar power generation rising slightly during our enhanced community quarantine.

Now is the best time, too to invest more in renewable energy projects says the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in its report “The Post-COVID Recovery.” It noted that the renewable energy sector has proven to be more resilient than other parts of the energy sector given the high shares of renewables continue to operate effectively. “Renewables have proven to be the most resilient energy sources throughout the current crisis. This evidence should allow governments to take immediate investment decisions and policy responses to overcome the crisis,” said Francesco La Camera, Director-General of IRENA.

The IRENA report added that accelerating the energy transition will bring substantial socio-economic benefits, specifically job creation. Aligning immediate stimulus action for the next three years, particularly from 2021 to 2023 and scaling up public and private energy spending to USD 4.5 trillion annually would boost the world economy by an additional 1.3 percent. 

This level of investment would also create 19 million more energy transition-related employment by 2030. Jobs in renewables power would grow to almost 30 million in 2030 from about 12 million in 2017. The study stressed that every one million dollars invested in renewables can provide three times more jobs than in fossil fuels.

I, along with other experts, have been arguing that the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic recession should not deter us from pursuing our clean energy transition goals. Like the experts quoted above, there’s an opportunity and a greater need for us to accelerate our shift to renewable energy.

A fast clean energy transition would reap enormous benefits for all and help in the global economic recovery. It also means ensuring energy security in the Philippines. And in the words of the IRENA President, “Now is the time to invest in a better future. Government policies and investment choices can create the necessary momentum to enact systemic change and deliver the energy transformation away from fossil fuels.”