The official visit of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte in
Russia last May brought about different opportunities not only in the sphere of
diplomatic, economic , and military aspects but also in the field of energy.
The government has foreseen a bigger demand and shortage of electricity in
the coming years and have studied the possibility of acquiring nuclear
technology in terms of producing electricity most specially in the island of
Mindanao.
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| Following President Duterte's official visit to President Vladimir Putin-led Russia our Department of Energy and the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation ( ROSATOM) has agreed to cooperate on nuclear energy development.(photo credit to CNN Philippines) |
The Philippine ambassador to Russia Carlos Sorreta was
quoted in saying that "Russia is a major power in terms of energy, not
just on fossil fuels but renewable resources and more modern forms of energy...
Russia can provide a whole range of nuclear energy... They were able to develop
this commercially,".
The offer from the Russians was brought about by the better
ties between Moscow and Manila which was the main reason why Duterte visited
the Vladimir Putin- led country.
One option for the Philippines is to rent the Russia’s
portable nuclear energy contraptions. The reactors are each about 15MW in size.
The idea is to mount them in barges far away from the inhabitants and connect
then to the electricity grid.
"If you want it, we'll rent it... We will just buy
power from it, put it on a barge off shore, run cables... If we don't like it
anymore, they'll pull it out," Sorreta said.
"It's actually quite safe. if you're still afraid of
it, you can have the barge far away," he added.
"They want to sell energy products to the region. We
have not had as deep an exchange with Russia even though we have had 40 years
of relations, but that's going to change," Sorreta said
Last June, the Philippines' Department of Energy and the
Russian State Atomic Energy Corp or ROSATOM agreed to cooperate on nuclear
energy development, after the meeting of President Rodrigo Duterte and Russian
President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
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