MB okays $12.5-M loan application of Northwind Power

The Monetary Board, the policy-making body of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), has approved the $12.5-million loan application of Northwind Power Development Corp.

BSP Governor and MB chairman Amando Tetangco Jr. said they approved the mixed credit facility of the Danish-Filipino consortium that would put up a 25-megawatt (MW) wind power facility in Bangui Bay, Ilocos Norte.

The 10-year loan, Tetangco said, would be guaranteed by Tidcorp and will be based on commercial interest rates or a margin of 20 basis points.

The Northwind project, which started construction last April 24 this year, will make the Philippines the first producer of wind power in Southeast Asia.

The wind project which is expected to be ready by the end of the year will augment the supply of power in Ilocos Norte.

The construction of the first 25 MW wind farm in Southeast Asia will involve the installation of modern and sophisticated wind technologies that will be placed in a single row stretching nine kilometers along the shoreline of Bangui Bay. It will harvest the breezes from the South China Sea using 15 giant wind turbines, each standing 70 meters high with rotor blades spanning 40 meters.

The Northwind project will become the pioneering model for future wind power projects in the Philippines. The government announced a target to attract at least 417 MW of wind-based power projects within the next ten years.

With wind speeds reaching an average of at least seven meters per second or an equivalent of 26 km per hour, Bangui Bay shoreline was one of the recommended by the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (USNREL) as the most ideal place for wind power generation based on their study.

USNREL is among the major research laboratories in the field of renewable energy that developed "The Wind Atlas of the Philippines".

The government has plans to increase the harnessing of wind power for the electrification for off-grid rural areas. To date, several similar projects are already in the pipeline which includes 40-MW Pagudpod Wind Project of PNOC-EDC, 10-MW Abra de Ilog Wind Project in Mindoro, 15-MW Wind Project in Camiguin, Siargao and Diangat Islands and the 30 MW Smith bell Negros Wind Farm.