The Phillipines Senate has approved a bill that includes a package of initiatives to attract renewable energy developers to invest in the country. Renewable energy sources include biomass, solar, wind, geothermal, ocean energy and hydropower that sticks to international regulation on dams.
“The Senate provided a seven-year income tax holiday and a fixed 5% gross income tax thereafter to entice renewable energy developers to invest in the Philippines,” said Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri, the proponent of the bill. “We all know that RE projects are very expensive as compared to fossil fuel-based energy plants and could scare away potential funders for these particular investments. However, the beauty of RE power plants is that the high investment costs are only at the beginning of the project during the building of its infrastructure, then costs taper off during operations since power is generated from cost-free renewable sources like wind, solar, hydro, geothermal, and, don’t need imported fossil fuels such as coal and bunker fuel to continue to operate”, he added.
In recognition of the need to hasten the development and dispatch of RE, the Senate also provided for government share equal to one percent (1%) of the gross income of RE developers on sale of RE produced and other incidental income from RE generation, transmission and sale of electricity.
And on a sidenote, their President has also implemented(and advocated) the use of cO2 friendly bulbs as an alternative to incandescent lightbulbs. Their approval of the RE bill could go a long way. Kudos to them
The Bailout package H.R. 1424 contains a tremendous amount of Alternative Energy related legislation. Might be worth your time to check it out.
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1424
I’m always pleased to see blogs like yours because they share my point of view.