MANILA, Philippines?The Department of Energy plans to award roughly 100 more renewable energy service contracts today to fast-track the development of the sector.

According to Assistant Energy Secretary Mario Marasigan, the contracts would mostly be for hydropower projects, but would also include wind and biomass projects.

Marasigan said the DOE was also set to award service contracts for geothermal power projects that were auctioned off under the fourth Philippine Energy Contracting Round.

The DOE offered 10 prospective geothermal areas under the PECR, for which it had prequalifed 10 companies, including Energy Development Corp. (EDC) and state-owned PNOC-Renewables Corp.

PECR is a public bidding round aimed at encouraging companies to invest in the country?s energy sector.

These contracting rounds, which showcase the country?s potential areas for exploration and development, are expected to spur investments and help cut costly oil imports.

Meanwhile, the DOE also received proposals to explore and develop eight prospective ?frontier? geothermal areas. These were submitted by the EDC, PNOC-RC and Primary Energy Corp.

Seven of these eight contracts for frontier areas are expected to generate a combined 251 megawatts of geothermal energy. Based on the general rule, investments for these projects may reach as much as $627.5 million.

For biomass, among the firms waiting for the DOE?s approval were Asea One Power Corp., Biscom Inc. and Hacienda Bioenergy Inc.

For hydroelectric power (HEP) projects, the DOE was evaluating the proposals of Cordillera Hydro Electric Power Corp., First Gen Prime Energy Corp., Kalinga Hydropower Inc., Langogan Holdings Corp., PhilCarbon Inc., SKI Mini-Hydro Corp., and Smith Bell Mini-Hydro Corp., among others.

Under a renewable energy service contract, companies will be given an initial two years under the pre-development stage, which involves the preliminary assessment and feasibility study up to financial closing of the renewable energy project.