The Answer Is Blowin' In The Wind

With the unpredictability of oil prices in the world market and the alarming rate of global warming, the need for the Philippines to tap alternative and environment-friendly energy sources becomes even more urgent, as the country imports more than 95 percent of its fuel requirements.

The 25-megawatt (MW) Bangui wind farm in the province of Ilocos Norte, the first and biggest wind power plant in Southeast Asia, is a good example of what can be done to achieve energy self-sufficiency.

According to the Renewable Energy Coalition, the Philippines has potential renewable energy resources of 204,228 MW, and has the potential to become the leading wind power producer in Southeast Asia with up to 70,000 MW of clean renewable energy from wind.

“The Philippines remains the leading wind energy producer in Southeast Asia,” says Fortunato Sibayan, officer-in-charge of the Department of Energy’s Renewable Energy Management Division, which has identified the island provinces of Batanes and Babuyan, as well as Mindoro, Samar, Leyte, Panay, Negros, Cebu, Palawan, and Eastern Mindanao as potential sites for wind farm projects.

With various indigenous energy resources within reach, the government is confident that the country would achieve 60 percent energy sufficiency by 2014, says Sibayan.

Over the past several months, governments, businesses and workers all over Asia struggled to cope with record oil prices.

The Philippine government says the poor have been the hardest hit by rising fuel prices. About 23.5 million Filipinos – a quarter of the population – earn $1.50 or less a day.

The government has responded to the energy crisis by providing one-time power subsidies to “lifeline power users,” but that is hardly a long-term solution.

While oil prices are currently on the downtrend, this is no guarantee that they would not soar again to record levels.

Inaugurated in 2005, the Bangui Bay wind farm started with 15 wind turbines that catch wind coming from the South China Sea and convert it into electricity that lights up the province of Ilocos Norte, with a population of 600, 000.

The wind turbine towers, each standing 70 meters above ground, are erected on the nine-km Bangui beach, which is covered by a lease agreement with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

The white, towering turbines are supplied by Danish wind giant Vestas Wind Systems, the world’s leading producer of wind turbines.

The wind farm was built under the build-operate-and-own scheme via a $40-million loan from the Danish Development Agency (DANIDA).

Filipino-Danish company NorthWind Power Corporation, which runs the Bangui wind farm, says it currently supplies 40 percent of the province’s energy requirement.

“Aside from generating clean energy, the wind farm has attracted foreign and local tourists too,” says Dino Tiatco, NorthWind plant manager.

Tiatco says one of the conditions under the agreement with the DENR is to keep the wind farm open to the public. But this has led to problems of its own, such as vandalism.

“Because we have to keep it open to the public, vandalism is one of our problems. We are not using ordinary paint, we have to call our Vietnamese supplier to repaint the turbines,” he says.

Tiatco says the power plant is manned by a total of 12 employees including security guards, engineers and a cook.

Over the past few years, the power plant produces electricity without emitting greenhouse gases (GHG), the main culprit behind global warming.

As proof of contribution to a cleaner environment, the NorthWind project became the first in the Philippines to be covered with an Emission Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA), under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, an international anti-pollution treaty.

“The electricity generated will reduce GHG emissions by approximately 49,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year,” Tiatco says.

Data from NorthWind Power shows that the 49,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year is roughly equivalent to the carbon dioxide emission of 30 units of Toyota Corolla cars running for approximately 15,000 kilometers per year.

NorthWind sells electricity to the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative at P3 per kilowatt-hour – which is seven percent cheaper than the cost of fossil-fuel power.

“Our energy rate is seven percent lower than the rates of the National Power Corporation,” Tiatco says.

Because the turbines are facing the South China Sea, Tiatco says wind power generation peaks during the northeast monsoon season or from October to March.

“One of the advantages of the site is we are at the extreme Northern Luzon, the turbines are able to catch the wind coming from the northeast without any obstruction. If the wind comes from the southwest it will first cross the entire Luzon region before reaching the wind farm,” Tiatco explains.

In August this year, NorthWind completed phase 2 of the project with the establishment of five more wind turbines expected to generate an additional 8.33 MW.

The company tapped a $13.1-million loan from Danida in October last year for the expansion project.

Tiatco says the wind farm has life expectancy of 25 years.

Now with 20 wind turbines operational, the Bangui wind farm is considered as the country’s largest renewable energy project.

Months after it was inaugurated, typhoon “Labuyo” slammed the province, bringing heavy rains and gusty winds that destroyed underground cables and crippled the wind farm’s operation for six months.

“That’s the worst typhoon that caused damage to the wind farm,” Tiatco says. “Half of the wind turbines were not able to function for six months.”

Tiatco says other companies have also expressed interest in the development of wind farms in the Ilocos region.

According to him, the Philippine National Oil Company Energy Development Corporation (PNOC-EDC) is planning to put up a 40-MW wind power plant in Burgos, Ilocos Norte.

“Actually, we don’t consider wind power developers as competitors, we consider them as partners in preserving the environment,” he says.

Based on research, wind energy is the best established of the renewables, constituting one percent of global energy production. It can also be the most cost-efficient, with wind turbines having the lowest installation costs of any of the renewables.

And as long as the wind blows, the answer to our power needs may be as close as the air we breathe. As the song goes – the answer is, indeed, blowing in the wind.