Why So Much Interest To Build RE Power Plants?

Many of us are apparently surprised why there are a number of micro hydro power plant projects, plan to develop a wind park and tidal power in Catanduanes. Why the sudden interest of investors in power generation on the island?

Obviously, they are banking on the future of carbon credits in the international trading.

Carbon credits are a key component of national and international emissions trading schemes that have been implemented to mitigate global warming. They provide a way to reduce greenhouse effect emissions on an industrial scale by capping total annual emissions and letting the market assign a monetary value to any shortfall through trading. Credits can be exchanged between businesses or bought and sold in international markets at the prevailing market price. Credits can be used to finance carbon reduction schemes between trading partners and around the world.

There are also many companies that sell carbon credits to commercial and individual customers who are interested in lowering their carbon footprint on a voluntary basis. These carbon off setters purchase the credits from an investment fund or a carbon development company that has aggregated the credits from individual projects. The quality of the credits is based in part on the validation process and sophistication of the fund or development company that acted as the sponsor to the carbon project. This is reflected in their price; voluntary units typically have less value than the units sold through the rigorously-validated Clean Development Mechanism.

If you were an investor, would you sink-in nearly a billion peso CAPEX in Catanduanes without any assurance or guarantee provided by the provincial government on the future of your investment?