Philippines hopes northern wind farm the first of many

By Girlie Linao Mar 8, 2007, 6:11 GMT

Bangui, Philippines - Residents along Bangui Bay on the northern tip of the Philippines are already used to seeing the white, towering windmills and could not help but be amused at those seeing it for the first time.

'It's so wonderful,' gushed 26-year-old Christine, a tourist from Manila, as she snapped pictures of her friends dwarfed by the 23-storey wind turbines lining the black-sand beach of Bangui town in Ilocos Norte province, 435 kilometres north of Manila.

Everyday, tourists like Christine and her friends arrive at the desolate shores of Bangui Bay to marvel at the 'huge electric fans' that are providing power to Ilocos Norte communities.

A viewing deck with several stores have been set up on a hilly side of the national highway in Bangui, but for those who want a close-up encounter, there are several entry points that would lead them to the town's wind-lashed shores.

For residents, however, the 15 windmills are more than just tourist attractions.

'Power supply is more reliable nowadays and that's because of the windmills,' said Elinao Ramiento, a 44-year-old village councillor in Taguiporo, one of the villages being energized by the 25-megawatt wind power plant.

Ramiento, a fisherman and father of two, recalled that when a typhoon cut off power supply to the village late last year, it didn't take long for the service to return after the deluge.

'The windmills apparently made it easier to get power back to us,' he said as he painted his boat, undisturbed by the excited tourists that were arriving.

Amid continued volatility in world crude oil prices, the Philippine government has identified wind-based power as one of the alternative sources of energy it can tap and hopes to duplicate the Bangui project in other parts of the country.

The Bangui wind farm, which cost 50 million dollars to build, became operational in June 2005. It was the first large-scale wind power plant in the Philippines and South-East Asia, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The windmills were built by Northwind Power Development Corporaton, a private firm headed by a Danish engineer, with the help of a 30-million-dollar soft loan and 10-million-dollar grant from the Danish International Development Agency.

According to Northwind, the wind farm supplies up to 40 per cent of the electricity requirement of Ilocos Norte. It also sells the supply to the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative at a discounted rate.

Since the turbines harness the natural force of the wind to produce electricity, they do so without emitting greenhouse gases.

Due to the wind farm's clean energy system, Northwind has earned carbon credits that it plans to sell to the World Bank, which manages a carbon credit fund as part of the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gases.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who recently visited the windmills, revealed that a 40-megawatt wind farm would be built in nearby Burgos town next year to augment the Bangui wind power plant.

The country's top geothermal energy producer, the Philippine National Oil Company-Energy Development Corporation, will invest 75 million dollars for the 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 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.'