DOE releases new wind resource atlas

MANILA, Philippines - Potential investors in wind energy would now be able to assess better the country’s wind power potential as the Department of Energy, together with the Climate Change Commission, United States Agency for International Development Philippines and the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory released yesterday the 2014 Wind Resource Atlas for Assessment and Geospatial Analysis for the Philippines.

During yesterday’s launching ceremony, Energy Undersecretary Zenaida Monsada said the new wind atlas greatly expanded and updated the old wind resource atlas published in 2001.

She said the data sets in the wind atlas will be publicly available therefore providing higher confidence to investors and ready reference to policy makers in formulating incentives and other guiding measures on renewable energy (RE).

“We hope that this initiative will not only support our internal causes but also contribute internationally in the promotion of low carbon emitting technologies… It will similarly help our partners identify potential areas where wind development is feasible,” Monsada said.

The document included up-to-date resource modeling techniques as well as the turbine technologies over the past decade.

This, Monsada said, supports the overall Philippine goal to promote wind development by providing wind resource information and tools that attracts prospective RE developers and investors in the country and abroad.

The DOE said last year, the USAID through the Building Low Emissions Alternatives to Develop Economic Resilience and Sustainability Project (B-LEADERS), conducted a hands-on workshop with the department on the new wind resource atlas

Monsada said the department would continue to lead the sector in pursuit of a better RE industry for a sustainable future for the country.

As of January, the DOE has already endorsed 14 RE projects as eligible for the feed-in-tariff (FIT) incentive.

These wind projects are the Bangui Bay Wind Power Project Phase 3 of Northwind Power Development Corp. with FIT capacity of 18.9 MW; the Burgos Wind Project Phase 1 of Energy Development Corp. with FIT capacity of 87 MW; the Burgos Wind Project Phase 2, also of EDC with FIT capacity of 63 MW and the Caparispisan Wind Power Project of North Luzon Renewable Energy Corp. with FIT capacity of 81 MW.