RE advocates seek solutions to Mindanao’s fossil fuel dependence
By Saghir Hussain ·
Mindanao’s lights still run on coal and diesel, and the 4th Mindanao Clean Energy Forum in General Santos City this week laid bare why that won’t change fast — no matter how many advocates gather.
The Forum Reality
The two-day MCEF brought together the usual mix: NGOs, local officials, a few developers, and the Department of Energy. They talked storage, grid flexibility, and “just transition” frameworks. What they didn’t talk about enough was price. A solar farm in Sultan Kudarat might pencil out at ₱3.50/kWh on paper, but the moment you add battery storage to make it dispatchable — essential for an island grid with no baseload backup — you’re north of ₱6.00. The Mindanao grid operator, NGCP, still curtails renewables when thermal plants can’t ramp down fast enough. That’s not policy failure; it’s physics and contract law. The coal plants in Villanueva and Misamis Oriental have take-or-pay deals signed a decade ago. Breaking them costs more than running them.
The Geopolitics of Power
China’s state-owned firms built most of those coal plants. Japan’s JICA financed the transmission lines. The ADB and World Bank now dangle climate finance for early retirement — but only if the Philippines guarantees returns that look suspiciously like the original contracts. Meanwhile, Indonesia and Vietnam are facing the same trap: Chinese-built coal, Western climate pressure, and no cheap capital to swap one for the other. The US Inflation Reduction Act and EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism don’t help Mindanao’s small manufacturers. They just raise the cost of exporting coconut oil or processed fruit when your grid emission factor stays high. BARMM’s new majority coalition, backed by all five provincial governors and Nur Misuari, has signaled support for energy autonomy — but their first test is whether they can negotiate a better deal for the 200 MW hydropower potential in Lanao del Sur than Manila did.
What Changes on the Ground
Some things are moving. AboitizPower’s 68 MW solar-battery hybrid in Davao del Sur starts commercial ops next quarter — the first utility-scale storage project in Mindanao. San Miguel Global Power is retrofitting its Iligan diesel plant to run on liquefied natural gas, if the LNG terminal in Misamis Oriental ever gets built. The DOE’s Green Energy Auction Programme round two awarded 1,200 MW nationwide, but only 150 MW landed in Mindanao. Developers cite land acquisition, right-of-way, and LGU permitting as bigger hurdles than finance. A coconut farmer in Sarangani doesn’t care about capacity factors. He cares that his irrigation pump runs when the sun doesn’t shine, and that his coop isn’t paying ₱12/kWh for diesel gensets while Manila debates carbon pricing.
The forum produced a declaration. It called for “accelerated deployment,” “equitable access,” and “community ownership.” It didn’t say who pays for the grid upgrades, or how you compensate a barangay that hosts a 100 MW solar farm but still suffers 12-hour brownouts.
Mindanao doesn’t need more declarations. It needs a transmission line that works, a market that values flexibility, and a government willing to tell the truth about costs.
Who’s going to build it?