Wind power in the Philippines
Despite currently being a small contributor to the country's energy mix, wind power installations have increased from 33MW in 2012-2013 to 337MW in 2014, 427MW in 2015-2018, and 443MW in 2019-2021.
Despite this, offshore wind farms have a vast potential since they are built at waters and therefore have a wider coverage area.
Some policies and mechanisms that help make this possible include the Renewable Energy Law of 2008, Feed in Tariff (FIT), Net Metering Mechanism, Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), and Green Energy Option Program (GEOP).
Based on conservative assumptions of 7MW per km2, these provinces have a 7GW potential of installed wind power capacity.
[6] According to a November 2000 report by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the best wind resources in the Philippines are found in six regions: (1) the Batanes and Babuyan islands north of Luzon; (2) the northwest tip of Luzon (Ilocos Norte); (3) the higher interior terrain of Luzon, Mindoro, Samar, Leyte, Panay, Negros, Cebu, Palawan, eastern Mindanao, and adjacent islands; (4) well-exposed east-facing coastal locations from northern Luzon southward to Samar; (5) the wind corridors between Luzon and Mindoro (including Lubang Island); and (6) between Mindoro and Panay (including the Semirara Islands and extending to the Cuyo Islands).
[8] Currently, Ilocos Norte's Burgos Wind Farm is the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia, providing approximately 370GWh of energy and offsetting 200,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.
[9] Since being commissioned in 2014, the Burgos Wind Farm has won the Asia Power Engineering International Best Renewable Energy Project in 2015; it has also been nominated for the Philippine Government's feed-in-tariff incentive scheme which allowed the project to receive government subsidies.
The Pililla Wind Farm, owned and operated by Alternergy Philippine Holdings Corporation (APHC), covers an area of 4,515 hectares under Department of Energy WESC NO.
The project consists of 27 wind turbine generators grouped into three clusters with an aggregate capacity of 54MW.
It is owned and operated by Trans-Asia Renewable Energy Corporation (TAREC) and was commissioned in 2015.
The first phase of the project is composed of 8 units of Gamesa G90 (2.0MW) turbines with a combined 16.0MW generating capacity, an access road, a substation, a 7.5km long 69kV transmission line, and a metering station which was completed mid-2019 and achieved commercial operations in Q3 2019.
The project adds a substantial renewable energy source to an island grid heavily dominated by diesel-based electricity supply.
Situated within the ancestral domain of the Mangyan tribe of indigenous people, the project co-exists with the indigenous people community and provides them a livelihood programme in the form of maintaining a tree nursery and tree plantation.
The wind farm uses 20 units of 70m (230 ft) high Vestas V82 1.65 MW wind turbines, arranged in a single row stretching along a 9-kilometer (5.6 mi) shoreline off Bangui Bay, facing the South China Sea.
Phase II was completed in August 2008, and added five more of the same wind turbines, bringing the total maximum capacity to 33 MW.
The project is part of a large-scale grid reinforcement and expansion for the islands of Cebu, Negros and Panay, called “CNP Backbone Extension”.
The project partners are currently in talks to market the electricity generated by the wind farm locally via a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA).
In January 2022, Iberdrola S.A. signed an agreement with Triconti ECC Renewables to construct five offshore wind projects with up to 3.5 GW capacity in the upcoming years.
During the same month, The Blue Circle and its partner CleanTech Global Renewables Inc. signed a contract to construct an offshore wind project in the Philippines with the capacity of 1.2 GW located in Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro.
