Renewable Energy Act of 2008

Also known as: RE Act · Renewable Energy Act · Republic Act No. 9513 · RA 9513

Definition

The Renewable Energy Act of 2008, formally Republic Act No. 9513 — “An Act Promoting the Development, Utilization and Commercialization of Renewable Energy Resources and for Other Purposes” — was signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on December 16, 2008. The statute declares it state policy to accelerate the exploration and development of renewable energy resources — solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal, biomass, and ocean energy — to achieve energy self-sufficiency, hedge against volatile fossil-fuel prices, and cut greenhouse-gas emissions. It legislates three principal market-creation instruments: a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requiring power-industry participants to source a minimum share of their electricity from renewable resources (Section 6); a Feed-in Tariff (FiT) system for wind, solar, run-of-river hydro, biomass, and ocean energy, with fixed tariffs applicable for not less than twelve years (Section 7); and net-metering for end-users who install their own renewable facilities (Section 10). (LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9513, Wikipedia — Renewable energy in the Philippines)

The act’s institutional architecture pairs fiscal incentives with new governance. Section 15 grants renewable-energy developers a seven-year income tax holiday, duty-free importation of machinery, a special realty tax capped at 1.5 percent of net book value, net-operating-loss carry-over, a 10 percent corporate tax rate after the holiday, zero value-added tax on renewable power sales, and tax exemptions on carbon-credit proceeds. Section 27 creates the National Renewable Energy Board (NREB), which recommends the RPS minimum percentages, recommends feed-in tariff rates, monitors the National Renewable Energy Program, and oversees the Renewable Energy Trust Fund, while Section 32 establishes the Renewable Energy Management Bureau within the Department of Energy. International reviewers described the Philippines as having enacted “a comprehensive and ambitious renewable law” at the time of passage. (LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9513, Wikipedia — Renewable energy in the Philippines, NARUC — The Philippines: An Update on the Country’s New Feed-in Tariff)

Identities

Source Type	Identity
Wikipedia	No standalone article; the Act is covered in “Renewable energy in the Philippines”
Wikidata	N/A
DBpedia	N/A
ProductOntology	N/A
Wiktionary	N/A
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH)	Renewable energy sources
MeSH	N/A
NCBI Taxonomy	N/A
AGROVOC	renewable energy
Google Scholar	“Renewable Energy Act of 2008” RA 9513 Philippines feed-in tariff renewable portfolio standard
ConceptNet	N/A
OpenCyc	N/A

Also Known As

RE Act
Renewable Energy Act
Republic Act No. 9513
RA 9513

Examples and Analogies

A mandated green slice: the RPS works like a recipe requirement for the whole electricity system — every distribution utility and supplier must serve customers with a minimum measured slice of renewable power, and the slice is meant to grow each year until renewables retake a set share of the generation mix. (LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9513, SC E-Library — DOE DC2017-12-0015, RPS Rules for On-Grid Areas)
A guaranteed price, like a long-term promissory note: the FiT assured qualifying wind, solar, run-of-river hydro, and biomass plants a fixed peso-per-kilowatt-hour price for at least twelve years — trading a visible consumer cost today for bankable investment in technologies that were then expensive. (LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9513, Philstar — ERC approves feed-in tariff rates)
Incentive stacking: the act layered rewards like a wedding cake — tax holidays and VAT zero-rating underneath, fixed tariffs and priority grid connection on top — so that a renewable developer’s returns did not depend on any single instrument. (LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9513)
Verified statutory data:
Signed: December 16, 2008, by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Market mechanisms: RPS (Sec. 6), FiT for wind, solar, run-of-river hydro, biomass, and ocean energy (Sec. 7), net-metering (Sec. 10)
Incentives (Sec. 15): 7-year income tax holiday; duty-free importation; 1.5 percent realty tax cap; 10 percent corporate tax after the holiday; 0 percent VAT; carbon-credit tax exemption
Governance: National Renewable Energy Board (Sec. 27); Renewable Energy Management Bureau (Sec. 32)
First FiT rates (ERC Resolution, July 2012): solar ₱9.68, wind ₱8.53, biomass ₱6.63, run-of-river hydro ₱5.90 per kWh

Usage Scenarios

1. Developing a Project Under the Feed-in Tariff

A solar or wind developer builds a qualifying plant and is paid the fixed FiT rate for its output, with priority connection, purchase, transmission, and payment. The Energy Regulatory Commission, on NREB recommendation, set the first rates only in July 2012 — solar ₱9.68, wind ₱8.53, biomass ₱6.63, run-of-river hydro ₱5.90 per kilowatt-hour — cutting the National Renewable Energy Board’s higher proposals, and lowered the solar rate to ₱8.69 in a second round in 2015. (Philstar — ERC approves feed-in tariff rates, NARUC — The Philippines: An Update on the Country’s New Feed-in Tariff, Law.asia — Renewable power in the Philippines: FIT for purpose)

2. Complying with the Renewable Portfolio Standard

Distribution utilities and other mandated participants must source or produce a specified portion of their supply from eligible renewable resources under the RPS On-Grid Rules adopted through Department Circular DC2017-12-0015, which imposes minimum annual requirements and allows compliance through renewable energy contracts and certificates. (SC E-Library — DOE DC2017-12-0015, RPS Rules for On-Grid Areas)

3. Availing of Fiscal Incentives

A renewable-energy developer registers its project and claims the Section 15 package — the income tax holiday in early commercial years, duty-free importation of equipment, the capped realty tax, and zero-rated VAT on power sales — the fiscal backbone that pulled private capital, including the hydropower acquisitions documented in this wiki’s SN Aboitiz Power entry, into Philippine renewables. (LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9513)

4. Installing Rooftop Solar Under Net-Metering

A household or business installs a qualified renewable system and exports excess generation to its distribution utility under a non-discriminatory net-metering agreement, with interconnection standards and pricing set by the ERC with the NREB — the act’s consumer-level entry point. (LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9513)

5. Setting Targets and Auctions Through NREB and DOE

The NREB recommends, and the Department of Energy adopts, the program-level targets that operationalize the act — an updated National Renewable Energy Program targeting a 35 percent renewable share of generation by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040, pursued since 2022 through the Green Energy Auction program, which the DOE has expanded into a ten-year plan seeking at least 25 gigawatts of new renewable capacity by 2035. (PNA — New RE plan targets 35% share of power generation by 2030, DOE — 10-Year Green Energy Auction Plan)

Strategies

Mandate-plus-incentive design: combining a compulsory market (the RPS) with generous fiscal incentives, so demand is guaranteed while returns are sweetened. (LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9513)
Price certainty to birth an industry: the twelve-year fixed tariff de-risked first-generation wind and solar projects whose costs no bank would then finance at merchant prices. (LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9513, NARUC — The Philippines: An Update on the Country’s New Feed-in Tariff)
Sequenced escalation: starting with modest FiT installation caps and raising or repricing them as technology costs fell — the 2012 rates and the lower 2015 solar rate trace the learning curve. (Philstar — ERC approves feed-in tariff rates, Law.asia — Renewable power in the Philippines: FIT for purpose)
From tariffs to competition: migrating procurement from administered FiT rates to competitive Green Energy Auctions once the industry matured, converting subsidy into price discovery. (DOE — 10-Year Green Energy Auction Plan)
Dedicated governance: a standing board (NREB) and a bureau (REMB) so that renewable policy has permanent owners rather than ad hoc committees. (LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9513)

Security and Safety Measures

Energy-security rationale: the act’s declared purpose — reducing dependence on imported fossil fuel — frames renewable development as a national-security measure, insulating the power mix from global oil and coal price shocks. (LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9513)
Uniform national standards: FiT rules and interconnection standards set by the ERC with the NREB ensure that grid-connected renewable facilities meet common technical requirements. (LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9513)
Ring-fenced funding: the Renewable Energy Trust Fund, overseen by the NREB, channels dedicated monies to renewable development rather than general appropriations. (LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9513)
Least-cost screening of mandates: the NREB’s feasibility assessments before RPS increases guard against mandates outrunning supply — the discipline the country’s biofuels program, covered in this wiki’s Biofuels Act of 2006 entry, did not always enjoy. (SC E-Library — DOE DC2017-12-0015, RPS Rules for On-Grid Areas)

Historical Context

RA 9513 was enacted amid the oil-price shock of 2008, completing a policy sequence begun by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 — covered in this wiki’s Electric Power Industry Reform Act entry — which unbundled and privatized the power industry, and the Biofuels Act of 2006, which mandated biofuel blending in transport fuel. Where EPIRA created the competitive market, the Renewable Energy Act aimed its incentives at what that market would not build on its own: emerging renewable technologies. Implementation took years — the ERC approved the first feed-in tariff rates only in July 2012, the RPS On-Grid Rules arrived with Department Circular DC2017-12-0015, and the Green Energy Auction program began running competitive rounds from 2022. (LawPhil — Republic Act No. 9513, NARUC — The Philippines: An Update on the Country’s New Feed-in Tariff, SC E-Library — DOE DC2017-12-0015, RPS Rules for On-Grid Areas)

The act’s second decade is defined by scale. The updated National Renewable Energy Program raised the country’s ambition to a 35 percent renewable share of generation by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040 — against roughly 22 percent installed renewable capacity as of 2023 — and the Department of Energy has stretched the Green Energy Auction into a ten-year pipeline of at least 25 gigawatts of new renewable capacity targeted by 2035. The statute’s mechanisms now anchor virtually every large solar, wind, and storage project in the country, including the diversification programs of hydro operators such as SN Aboitiz Power, documented in this wiki’s SN Aboitiz Power entry. (PNA — New RE plan targets 35% share of power generation by 2030, Wikipedia — Renewable energy in the Philippines, DOE — 10-Year Green Energy Auction Plan)

Challenges and Controversies

The FiT Cost Pass-Through

The feed-in tariff is paid for by all on-grid consumers through the FiT Allowance, a uniform per-kilowatt-hour line item collected through the transmission charge — so the act’s flagship incentive appears directly on every electricity bill. Consumer groups and legislators have repeatedly questioned the size of collections and the resulting fund balances, and the ERC’s own rate-setting was contested from the start, with regulators cutting the NREB’s proposed tariffs across every technology before any rate took effect. (NARUC — The Philippines: An Update on the Country’s New Feed-in Tariff, Law.asia — Renewable power in the Philippines: FIT for purpose)

Managed Caps and the Solar Rush

Because the 2012 approval came years late and with limited installation targets, developers raced to beat deadlines for the higher initial solar rate, producing a burst of projects and a contentious repricing — the 2015 second round cut solar to ₱8.69 per kilowatt-hour, splitting the industry between early entrants enjoying the old rate and later ones facing the new. Whether administratively set caps or the market should allocate renewable build-out remains the central design debate the Green Energy Auctions were created to settle. (Philstar — ERC approves feed-in tariff rates, Law.asia — Renewable power in the Philippines: FIT for purpose)

RPS Ambition Versus Delivery

The act’s critics note the gap between its mandate machinery and outcomes: the RPS rules took nine years to adopt, and renewables were about 22 percent of installed capacity as of 2023 against the 35-by-2030 generation target, with analysts warning the goal requires grid, permitting, and financing fixes beyond the statute’s incentives. Defenders answer that the FiT and auction programs have already delivered gigawatts and that the act, uniquely in the region, gave the tools to raise ambition later. (SC E-Library — DOE DC2017-12-0015, RPS Rules for On-Grid Areas, Wikipedia — Renewable energy in the Philippines, PNA — New RE plan targets 35% share of power generation by 2030)