Interview with Vincent Villegas of EDC for GeoPower Indonesia & Philippines
JW Marriott, Jakarta, Indonesia (source: flickr/ Aktiv Phil, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
13 Apr 2012
The GeoPower Indonesia & Philippines event to take place June 6-7, 2012 in Jakarta, Indonesia recently spoke with Vincent Villegas of EDC about his thoughts on the Southeast Asian geothermal industry.
In a recent interview with the organizers of GeoPower Indonesia & Philippines to take place June 6-7, 2012 in Jakarta, Indonesia, Vincent Villegas, VP Business Development at the Energy Development Corporation, spoke about his thoughts on the SE Asian geothermal industry in the run-up to the event.
As the world’s largest integrated geothermal developer, and with four geothermal facilities in the Philippines boasting a total installed capacity of 1149MW, EDC is in the perfect position to discuss the challenges of operating in the region. “The most challenging aspect of project development lies in the uncertainty of resource.” explained Mr Villegas. “The most conclusive manner to determine an area’s potential resource capacity is by drilling wells…In the early stages of project development, the developer is usually forced to absorb all the costs and risks involved in drilling due to the lack of other financing options besides equity.” He also comments that the regulatory framework in the Philippines continues to cause issues when developing a geothermal project, but the EDC hopes to ease this situation as it “continues to partner with the regulatory body to influence and establish stable regulatory framework which can help in the timely completion of the geothermal projects.”
The full interview is available at www.greenpowerconferences.com/geopowerasia
To hear more from Mr Villegas, join him and over 25 expert industry speakers at GeoPower Indonesia & Philippines. This event is not to be missed – as Mr Villegas remarks: “Indonesia is in the process of harnessing their geothermal resource potential.” The event will provide the perfect opportunity for industry players to share expertise and build the partnerships necessary to develop the burgeoning geothermal power industry in the region.
