The very succesful Danish supported commercial wind power plant in northern Ilocos Norte province in the Philippines will soon be followed by other plants nearby, revealed President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, when she recently paid a visit to the Danish 25 megawatt plant.
The next plant will be a 40-megawatt wind farm in nearby Burgos town to be built next year to augment the Bangui wind power plant, she elaborated. The country’s top geothermal energy producer, the Philippine National Oil Company-Energy Development Corporation, will invest 75 million dollars in this Burgos windmill project.
According to the WWF, there are more than 1,000 wind sites in the northern and central Philippines, with a potential capacity of at least 7,400 megawatts – enough to power 19 million homes.
It estimates that the Philippines “could save 2.9 billion dollars in avoided fossil-fuel imports over the next 10 years if the country’s vast renewable energy resources are tapped.”
The Department of Energy of the Philippines said it has already studied the feasibility of 16 other wind sites in the northern and central Philippines. The projects have already been offered to investors for development, and several of them have already been awarded.
More potential sites are being studied by the department and private investors.
The department said its goal is to install wind-based power projects with a capacity of at least 417 megawatts in the next 10 years as part of efforts to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fuel and boost self-suffiency.
Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said the Bangui wind farm has proven the viability of these wind power projects, adding, “I hope that the commercial operations of the Bangui wind farm will usher in new developments in our wind resources.”
The “Danish” Bangui wind farm became operational in June 2005. It was built by Northwind Power Development Corporaton with the help of a 30-million-dollar soft loan and 10-million-dollar grant from the Danish International Development Agency. It remains the first large-scale wind power plant in the Philippines and South-East Asia.
