Specialist
Senior Executive at Aboitiz Power Corp
Agenda
- Regulatory framework and factors driving geothermal project investment
- Geothermal energy economics and operating challenges
- Asset profiling and return characteristics
Questions
1.
I understand one of the more recent catalysts in the geothermal energy sector in the Philippines is that the government is now opening up the large-scale geothermal projects to 100% foreign ownership with large scale investments being USD 50m or above. How might that trigger additional growth in geothermal capacity in the Philippines?
2.
You mentioned the actual cost per well may deviate substantially from the actual forecasted price per well. What is the deviation on greenfield projects in the Philippines, typically?
3.
You mentioned the third project opportunity in the Philippines geothermal market includes greenfield projects where the big two might have discounted them as unfeasible in the past, but a foreign player might be able to make these projects feasible with some new technical expertise. Could you expand on that and give examples of deposits or areas where it could be feasible with newer technology?
4.
What are the pros and cons of going after a greenfield resource such as the acidic wells in Naval? Is it the fact that you know there’s a resource there, so that’s a resource uncertainty, but that’s balanced off by the cost of going after that type of resource, or is it a higher-operating-cost project?
5.
How would you compare the risk profile for brownfield and greenfield geothermal projects in the Philippines and which do you think is the pick for someone coming into the industry, especially given that the industry is now opening up to the foreign investors?
6.
How optimal do you think the geology of the Philippines is in geothermal projects? Do you think there are any factors that favour geothermal power as a preferred renewable energy source in the Philippines?
7.
It sounds like there’s a fairly large capital cost associated with building out projects, at least in the greenfield side. How would you characterise the CAPEX per megawatt from a more consolidated standpoint? Aragorn Power and Energy is saying that the headline cost on their 100-megawatt project is around USD 300m. Would you say that USD 3m per megawatt is fairly benchmarked for a project CAPEX in the Philippines?
8.
Do you have the established PPA [power purchase agreement] on the solar and wind side of geothermal energy? How do we think about contracting that power and figuring out what price you can sell it at?
9.
How would you compare the premium on spot pricing, or the difference if there isn’t a premium? Typically, what percentage of power capacity is contracted vs traded on the spot market for most project owners?
10.
What range of pricing have you observed in the industry? Typically, what pricing do most projects need to make margin, not just variable cost of generation, but all-in project cost per megawatt, or per kilowatt-hour in this case?
11.
Did you say a project’s typical lifetime is 20 years, if we contextualise it against the background of the actual economic or practical life of a geothermal project?
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