Monday, November 5, 2007
Iceland to help
Philippines on more advanced geothermal exploitation
by lanilane ocbina
The opportunity to have a bilateral development of geothermal areas in the Philippines has let the
Republic of
Iceland and its top geothermal firm pay a courtesy call on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in Malacanang last October 26, 2007.
PGMA welcomed
Iceland Minister of Industry Ossur Skarphedinsson who was with the officials of the Reykjavik Energy, an Iceland-based world’s leading authority in the utilization of geothermal energy. Minister Skarphedinsson came with a non-resident Ambassador of Iceland Thordur Oskersson, Honorary Consul of Iceland Ambassador Antonio del Rosario Sr., Reykjavik Energy Invest (REI) Chairman Bjarni Armansson, and REI Managing Director Gudmundur Sigurjonsson.
Some of the important professionals and officials who have also attended were Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Angelo Reyes, DOE Assistant Secretary Francisco Delfin Jr., and Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) President Antonio Cailao.
Philippines currently ranks second in world when it comes to geothermal energy production while
Iceland lines at eight. However over the years,
Iceland utilized quality technology in producing geothermal energy and supplies a large portion of the Icelandic population with geothermal water for domestic heating. This country has been developing new steam fields for power production for the past 60 years.
Minister Skarphedinsson manifested his interest to bring in Iceland’s expertise as REI is currently focusing on the establishment of partnership to develop geothermal areas in the
Philippines.
According to REI officials, the energy produced from geothermal sources today amounts to less than 0.1 percent of the global use so they want to share their proven experience to increase the use of geothermal energy worldwide.
data from: http://www.op.gov.ph/news.asp?newsid=19164
