ACEN, partners to retire coal plant in the Philippines
(UPDATE) – Philippine based energy major, ACEN Corp on Monday announced a new collaboration with The Coal to Clean Credit Initiative (CCCI), which has support from The Rockefeller Foundation, to use carbon finance to retire a coal power plant and replace it with renewable energy.
CCCI and ACEN are working jointly with the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country’s central bank, to advance the potential project.
The initiative could reduce around 15-25 years’ worth of emissions given that coal plants typically operate for 40-50 years, ACEN said in a statement.
Transition credits will enable ACEN to increase its ambition of further accelerating the transition of its South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation (SLTEC) plant by as early as 2030, a decade ahead of its current retirement date.
Through the project, the SLTEC coal plant would become the world’s first coal-fired power plant to leverage carbon credits to enable its early decommissioning, ACEN said.
“If the world does not break its over-reliance on coal, current and planned coal-fired power plants will release 273 billion tons of carbon dioxide over their operational lifetimes and trigger a catastrophe for our planet and the people living on it,” said Rajiv J. Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation.
The energy transition initiative is in line with ACEN’s aspiration to reach 20 gigawatt of renewables by 2030 and 100% renewable generation by 2025. — Reuters
