Untapped potential

One energy source which the Philippines has not harnessed yet is tidal energy.

There was one local study which revealed that there is around 10-20 kW/m of wave energy flux scattered in various coastal areas of the Philippines. Despite this, ocean energy is still not part of the current energy mix and a large part of the country’s energy still comes from fossil fuel.

A study by Mindanao State University showed that the resource potential for marine renewable energy or wave energy in the Philippines is around 170,000 megawatts.

But what exactly is wave energy?

The study, made by Marvin Rhey Quitoras and Louis Angelo Danao of the University of the Philippines and Michael Abundo of the Energy Research Institute at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, explained that ocean wave energy is basically considered as a concentrated form of solar energy. Due to winds created because of the pressure differences, which are products of differential solar heating in the earth’s atmosphere, waves are produced.

So basically, tidal energy is power produced by the surge of ocean waters during the rise and fall of tides and is considered as a renewable energy source. According to an article by National Geographic, tidal energy production is still in its infancy and there are very few commercial-sized tidal power plants operating in the world.

The article mentioned that the first was located in La Rance, France consisting of 240 MW while the largest facility is the 254 MW Sihwa Lake Tidal Power Station in South Korea.

According to the International Energy Forum, tidal energy is the kinetic energy that governs the mass movement of water in tides and oceans. When this water turns a turbine to drive a generator, it is transformed into electrical energy. Of the world’s 3,000 GW of tidal power, it is estimated that 120 to 400 GW could be captured.

Unfortunately, tidal power has not been developed at the scale of other renewables and contributes a negligible fraction of energy consumed today. This, the IEF said, is largely due to the engineering challenges involved not to mention difficulty in securing capital investments.

The IEF mentioned that nations with favorable sites for tidal power projects include the US, China, France, Russia, India and the Philippines.

In another study by Villalba, Cleofe and Bautista of the UP Institute of Civil Engineering, it was noted the Philippines has an untapped potential of ocean renewable energy, and one of the appropriate tidal energy converters for the country is in-stream tidal energy.

It noted that the archipelagic nature of the country along with its position between the Pacific Ocean and West Philippine Sea results in high tidal currents due to the narrow transitions between the two large bodies of water.

It said that while ocean renewable energy was targeted to produce 70.5 MW by 2030 in the Philippines under the Energy Act of 2008, as of 2019, the only ocean renewable energy being developed is the tidal in-stream plant located at San Bernardino Strait which is expected to produce three MW and commissioned in 2024.

The study emphasized that unlike majority of renewable energy such as solar and wind which are expensive to construct and hard to integrate with the existing electricity distribution system because of their unpredictable behavior and the distance of the energy farms to the demand, tidal energy is quite promising because of their low variability power output and high predictability, making them suitable for efficient energy production.

The same study explained that there are currently two ways of harnessing tidal energy: in-stream, which uses turbines underwater harnessing energy from the velocity head of tidal currents; and tidal barrages which utilize a man-made structure to create a head difference between the ebb and flood tide situated at estuaries.

Tidal in-stream energy, it said, is a significant energy source, with an estimated energy of 200 GW, of which 40-60 GW are extractable.

It also noted that the Department of Energy has identified eight tidal energy potential sites, namely, Bohol Strait, Basiao Channel, Surigao Strait, Gaboc Channel, Hinatuan Passage, San Bernardino Strait, Basilan Strait, and San Juanico Strait, most of which are in the Visayas.

Meanwhile, the Department of Energy said based on a study conducted by the Mindanao State University, the potential theoretical capacity for ocean resource consisting of 1,000 square kilometers is about 170,000 MW and that initial ocean energy potential sites identified include the Hinatuan Passage, Camarines, Northeastern Samar, Surigao, Batan Island, Catanduanes, Tacloban, San Bernardino Strait, Babuyan Island, Ilocos Norte, Siargao Island and Davao Oriental.

Last July, Energies Ph Inc. (EHPI) said that it is launching a series of firsts in the Philippines with its tidal in-stream energy conversion power technology project bundled with the nationwide microgrid program and recharging hydrogen fuels in Capul Island in San Bernardino Strait, and adjoining islands in Northern Samar up to Calintaan Island in Matnag, Sorsogon.

In 2018, Oceantera Energy Corp received a permit from the DOE to start pre-development activities for a tidal energy project in San Bernardino.

Then there is the San Bernardino Ocean Power Project to be carried out by local company H&WB and French technology developer Sabella which aims to develop the country’s and ASEAN’s first commercial power plant deploying tidal in-stream turbines. The first phase involves a 1.5 MW pilot farm off Capul Island supposedly beginning last year.

The contract, which was granted by the DOE to H&WB in 2013, will cost around P1.2 billion.

We do not know if these projects are still being pursued and there has been no news recently about these three projects.

In 2017, it was reported that San Miguel Corp. (SMC) was planning to invest over $3 billion to develop a 1,200 MW tidal power plant in the Philippines.

SMC president Ramon Ang recently said the proposal, which is still with the DOE, is to set up the plant in Matnoc, Allen in Leyte.

Producing tidal energy does not seem to be in SMC’s plans in the immediate future. SMC Global Power however is keen on becoming one of the biggest operators of battery energy storage technology in Asia in terms of total installed capacity.

According to RSA, plans are to operate 700 MW of battery energy storage systems all over Luzon. SMC started its venture in BESS in 2018 when it acquired the 10-MW Masinloc BESS which is the first battery energy storage facility in the Philippines and one of the first in Southeast Asia.

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