In his first State of the Nation Address, Marcos declared his government would consider renewable energy (RE) a key sector for supposedly developing the country’s economy. Since then, land grabbing and environmental destruction have aggressively and blatantly intensified to attract RE investors into the country. By 2024, up to 68% of foreign investments were channeled into RE projects.

The National Renewable Energy Program (NREP)’s goal is for RE to supply 50% of the Philippines’ energy by 2040, purporetedly to provide a “sustainable energy source.” RE refers to energy coming from biomass (decomposition of organic material), solar, wind, geothermal (subterranean heat), and hydropower.

Marcos further streamlined and expedited the issuance of permits and licenses to foreign RE capitalist investors. In April, the Department of Energy granted permits for 1,319 RE projects, 39% or 517 of which are solar projects. Ilocos ranks fourth in the number of solar projects, with 53 projects. The state also targets to set up 46,000 hectares of solar farms by 2040.

Local big comprador bourgeoisie immediately took advantage of the opportunity to benefit from RE projects in the country. These include Manny Pangilinan’s Solar Philippines New Energy Corp. (SPNEC), the Ayalas’ AC Energy Corp. (ACEN), the Sy family’s APC Group Inc./Philippine Geothermal Production Co., the Aboitiz company’s Astra Solar Energy Corp., Ramon Ang’s San Miguel Global Power Holdings, and the Lopez Group’s Energy Development Corporation (EDC).

One of the most destructive RE projects is Meralco Terra Solar’s 3,500-hectare solar farm (larger than the entire land area of Makati City and Mandaluyong combined) located in Bulacan and Nueva Ecija. It will become the world’s largest solar and battery facility. It is owned by SPNEC and Actis, a UK-based company.

The Laguna Lake Floating Solar Project will cover 2,000 hectares of the lake across parts of Calamba, Santa Rosa, Cabuyao, Bay, and Victoria. The project is owned by ACEN and companies from Singapore and the UK.

Among the biggest offshore and onshore wind farms to be built is in San Miguel Bay, Camarines Sur, which will cover 23,307 hectares of San Miguel’s municipal waters. It will have a capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW) and is owned by Copenhagen Infrastructure New Market Fund Corp., a company from Denmark, and ACEN, which holds a 25% stake. Also to be built is the 1,200 MW Guimaras Strait OSWF between Panay and Negros, owned by companies from Switzerland and Liechtenstein. ACEN also plans to construct the 2,510 MW Quezon North Wind Farm in Real, Quezon, and the 625-hectare North Luzon Renewable Wind Farm in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte.

The government has approved 99 hydropower projects in the Cordillera with a total capacity of 4,000 MW. An Australian company owns four of these projects. Three geothermal power plants are also set for development in the region, expected to generate a combined 300 MW of electricity. These are the Buguias-Tinoc GPP owned by EDC, and the Kalinga GPP and Mainit-Sadanga GPP, both owned by APC.

The reactionary state uses the pretext of “addressing the climate crisis” to push multi-billion peso RE projects. In reality, these weaken the country’s ability to face climate change-related catastrophes due to the rampant environmental destruction that setting up these facilities require.

Worse, tens of thousands of farmers, fishers, and indigenous people will lose their livelihoods and homes, while destroying thousands of hectares of agricultural land, ocean, and forest in the name of clean energy monopolized by foreign and local comprador bourgeoisie.