MGen to develop offshore wind power

MANILA, Philippines — Meralco Powergen Corp. (MGen), the power generating arm of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), joins the bandwagon to develop offshore wind amid the massive potential in the country.

MGen president and CEO Jaime Azurin said the company is seriously looking into offshore wind development.

“We are very interested in offshore wind. these are huge investments. There are huge tracks of offshore wind available in the Philippines,” he said.

MGen is looking to tap foreign investors to get technical expertise since offshore wind is a nascent industry in the country, Azurin said.

As for the capacity, the company is still in the early process of exploring offshore wind development.

The World Bank Group said the country has a potential of developing 178 gigawatts (GW) of technical offshore wind projects.

Based on the recently launched Philippines Offshore Wind Roadmap by the Department of Energy (DOE) and WBG, the country has the potential to install three GW in a low growth scenario and 21 GW in a high growth scenario by 2040.

The development of offshore wind will require capital amounting to $7.5 billion and $50 billion, respectively, in a low growth and high growth scenario.

The report also said the Philippines can have as much as 40 GW of offshore wind installations by 2050.

Meanwhile, MGen plans to firm up its investments in large scale wind farm and battery energy storage by next year.

“We’ll have a better report maybe in the middle of next year when we have finalized plans for the large-scale wind farm, as well as battery energy storage,” Azurin said.

These potential projects are part of MGen’s ramp up of investments in the renewable energy (RE) sector to reach 1,500 megawatts (MW) of capacity in the next seven years.

The company is constructing three solar projects, namely the 75-MW alternating current (MWac) solar power development in Baras, Rizal, the 68-MWac solar farm in Ilocos Norte, and the 45-MWac solar project in Cordon, Isabela.

“These are about 190 MW in addition to our existing Bulacansol, which is already operating since May of 2021,” Azurin said.

“After the first quarter of next year, we would have ramped up about 240 MW of renewable projects online,” he said.

Last year, MGen commenced commercial operations of BulacanSol’s 55-MWac solar plant, its first RE venture located in San Miguel, Bulacan.

Anchored on One Meralco group’s sustainability agenda, MGen has set its sights on building 1,500 MW of renewable energy projects in the next seven years to help ensure energy security through clean, cost-competitive and sustainable power.

MGen currently has a total capacity of 2,446 MW.