In Southeast Asia, decades-long deals stymie shift away from coal

Southeast Asia's transition to renewable energy is complicated by guarantees coal plants stay active for decades at a time. [File: Reuters]

GNPower Dinginin is one of the Philippines’s newest and biggest coal-fired power plants. Located in Bataan province on the island of Luzon, the $1.7bn facility began construction in 2016 before launching commercial operations late last year.

Plans are underway to add a second 668-megawatt unit that would expand total capacity to 1,336 megawatts. Like other coal plants in the Philippines, GNPower Dinginin materialised years before President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration banned new coal projects in 2020. Since the ban doesn’t apply to existing ventures, young facilities such as GNPower Dinginin ensure that coal will remain the Philippines’s primary energy source for years to come.