THE Department of Science and Technology (DoST), in partnership with the Department of Energy (DoE), issued a call for proposals this week for developers of renewable energy (RE) innovations, offering a total of P90 million in grants. It is an encouraging initiative and a welcome bit of good news amid the usual stream of tales of woe.

The call for proposals is under the Renewable Energy Science, Technology and Innovation (Resti) program managed by the DoST's Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (DoST-PCIEERD). The Resti program was created by a cooperation agreement between the DoST-PCIEERD and the Renewable Energy Management Bureau of the DoE, with the funding of the grants offered coming from the Renewable Energy Trust Fund and the DoST grants-in-aid program.

The first thing that stands out about the Resti program, at least in the context of the current call for proposals, is that it is directed toward startups and small entrepreneurs. There is a surprisingly vibrant ecosystem of talented local innovators in the Philippines who create many low-cost and practical RE, and other sustainable concepts. Most of these never see the light of day, however, due to a lack of support; for a variety of reasons, the Philippines lags behind most of the region in terms of venture capital investment in all areas, and particularly in RE and environmental innovations. Even if it is on a relatively small scale, the government's initiative to step into that gap is certainly welcome and will help to encourage more would-be entrepreneurs to keep working on new ideas.

The second noteworthy thing about the grant program is that it provides insight into what the government considers important in RE and sustainable development. The P90 million in grant assistance is broken down into three parts: integrated RE information and mapping systems; local market assessment of solar photovoltaic (PV) systems; and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production.

The biggest grant, P50 million for three years, is offered for research and development of an integrated RE information and mapping system, which the DoST explained in its press release as having the goal "to streamline and automate the monitoring and operation of renewable energy initiatives." Translating from institution-speak, what that means is addressing the challenge of efficiently integrating variable RE generation sources (i.e., solar and wind) into the national energy mix. It can be done; there are other countries that are able to source 70 percent or more of their basic power requirements from RE. However, a system that is designed for the unique circumstances of the Philippines is needed.

A P35 million fund is set aside for the development of SAF production, which so far has proven to be a more difficult challenge than anticipated, both here and abroad. Sustainable aviation fuel can hypothetically be produced from many different sources, such as biodiesel, chemical recycling of plastics or carbon dioxide capture. Producing it in useful volumes in a cost-effective way, however, is the hard part, and where research support is needed. The Philippines has committed itself to aligning with the International Civil Aviation Organization's goal of making all international flights carbon emissions-free by 2050.

The remaining P5 million, which has been set aside by the DoE, is intended to fund a project to conduct a market study of the solar PV market in the Philippines. A number of private-sector analyses have done just that, but the intent here seems to be to create a market study that is more comprehensive and would serve as the "official" benchmark used by the DoE in crafting policy and development plans related to solar PV. One aspect of this is determining the potential market for "non-wire alternatives" such as individual solar installations, and solar plus battery distributed energy and micro-grid systems. We suspect that this market could be much larger than the DoE, which currently focuses on grid-scale RE systems, realizes or is willing to admit. An added benefit of such a study would also be that it would provide insights with other agencies, such as the Department of Trade and Industry, into what solar products could be potentially manufactured here, easing import dependence.