Two new wind farms have become operational in the Philippines, supplying 303 megawatts of clean energy to the country’s energy portfolio.
The wind farms are located in Ilocos Norte and Panay region of the Philippines.
Last year, a $220-million, 81-megawatt wind farm was opened in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte as a solution to the power crisis challenge faced by the country.
In another development, the Philippines power-producer Energy Development Corporation (EDC) has grid-connected the nation’s largest 150MW Burgos wind farm worth $450m.
Burgos uses 50 V90 3MW wind turbines from Vestas at Ilocos Norte province.
According to the Wind Energy Development Association of the Philippines, the highest wind energy output occurs during March of each year.
WWF’s Seize the Wind campaign aims to increase the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) allocation for wind energy from 200 MW to 500 MW.
Wind farms need only a year to go online, compared with fossil-fuel power plants which take up four years to complete construction.
In Philippines, around 70 percent of the electricity is generated from fossil fuels.
As the country does not have any considerable amount of fossil-fuel deposits, major portion of the fuel needed for the country is imported from other nations.
On the other hand, President Aquino has urged the country to invest in renewable energy to ensure adequate power supply that would not be harmful to the environment.
The country’s National Renewable Energy Program aims at adding 9,931 megawatts of renewable energy-based capacity by 2030.
The Philippines’ prime renewable sources of energy include geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar.
Sabeena Wahid
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