The Department of Energy (DOE) is dangling ‘captive electricity generation’ as a viable solution to the intensive energy needs of mining companies to bolster up whole chain development of critical minerals that will underpin technological innovations for the energy transition.

“We’re looking into providing captive generation for mining. That will be dedicated to a particular mining facility – that instead of putting up massive transmission connection, they can already provide for it (electricity) on site,” Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla noted.

According to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD), reliable as well as cost-effective power supply had been identified among the hurdles that shall be concretely addressed if the country would want to fully harness its potential on critical minerals – that will be from extraction to production and processing or refining.

As emphasized by PCIEERD Executive Director Enrico C. Paringit, “we need source of energy for processing,” while qualifying that the country’s potential for critical minerals for energy applications is “very significant.”

Critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt and nickel are highly considered the building block of technological innovations that will propel the energy transition agenda to success – including those for battery or energy storage systems for power and electric vehicles; then the warranted advancements on solar panels and wind turbines.

DOST Secretary Renato Solidum Jr. further indicated “we’re looking at the value chain – from minerals extraction to processing. In reality, once we have enough energy, we can do processing in the Philippines.”

Lotilla, nevertheless, stated that in providing energy solution for the mining industry, the government has to strike a balance by putting in mind the environmental impacts of the technology fixes to be instituted.

“You can’t just simply say, we will put up coal-fired power plant in order to provide power needs for mining because the consumers or the buyers of their materials are also demanding that the source of power for mining should also be green. So it’s finding the right mix and we have been discussing that with power providers,” the energy chief said.

He similarly conveyed there are some technologies that are “site specific -- that there are certain cases that are conducive for the use of solar – and that’s why we want to be able to identify those … and we then identify who are the potential power producers we can pair off with them.”

Paringit expounded “we have been working on a lot of projects on processing critical minerals, particularly on copper and nickel – these are the metallic minerals that are actually needed to produce batteries.”

He stressed “we still have significant investments on those – and we are coordinating with the MGB (Mines and Geosciences Bureau) - the purpose is to drive the development of energy storage, because that will be the driver for our future mobility.”