As the Philippines continues to push for an increase in reliance on clean energy, one company is reporting massive growth in capacity in the near future.
Citicore, which is one of the Philippines' largest solar energy producers, is expecting a ninefold increase in production capacity by the end of next year, company CEO Oliver Tan told Reuters.
The company has planned a 1-gigawatt increase in capacity by the end of 2025 and a further 1.17 GW in 2026, bringing its capacity to 2.56 GW.
Even at its current limited capacity, Citicore is the second-largest provider of solar energy in the Philippines, but its push is part of a larger shift in the nation's energy consumption.
The Philippines long relied heavily on coal to provide its power; in 2023, it passed Indonesia as the most coal-dependent nation in all of South Asia, according to Reuters.
Coal is a massive source of both air and water pollution when burned for fuel; it pumps carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, contributing to our warming planet, as well as particulates that can cause respiratory issues and cancer, according to Environment America.
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The ash created from burning it poses a serious threat to waterways, and the process of mining it devastates the ecosystems around it.
However, that dubious distinction pushed the Philippines to modernize its power grid and look for power elsewhere. The country's green energy capacity jumped by 10 percent in 2024, according to government data reported by Reuters. That 9.2 GW of power was more green energy than had been added in the previous three years combined.
Citicore isn't done yet, though. The additions this year are part of a larger plan to add a full 5 GW of solar energy to the Philippine grid by 2030, as the country looks to increase the percentage of its energy that comes from solar power from 3.5 percent to 5.6 percent by 2030.
It may have taken the Philippines a while to get its green energy industry rolling, but it's now clearly committed to cleaning up its grid.
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