A consortium of Filipino, Swiss and German Energy companies was given the green light by the Philippines’ Department of Energy (DOE) to study and develop the country’s first offshore wind Energy projects. The Triconti ECC Group of Companies gained exclusive rights to build two wind turbine projects in the Guimaras Strait and Aparri Bay.
The locations were chosen due to their great potential in harnessing wind speeds that can generate more than 1.2 GW of clean Energy. 600 MW is expected to be produced from a 12,700 hectare site in Guimaras Strait, central Philippines, while 500-600 MW is expected from Aparri Bay, northern Philippines, which will cover an area of more than 14,000 ha in shallow waters 3-8 kms off the coast. No further details about the project and projected date of completion were given.
Triconti has a portfolio of 1.7 GW in the country including the 500 MW of onshore wind project under development in Nabas, Aklan province which is expected to be online by 2022.
The government has set a renewable Energy target od 50% by 2030, with hydro (8.7 GW) and geothermal (3.5 GW) and wind (2.4 GW) as the three primary contributors. In a 2019 report by World Bank, Going Global: Expanding Offshore Wind to Emerging Markets, the Philippines was found to have the potential for 178 GW of offshore wind power, including 18 GW of fixed and 160 GW of floating wind power.
According to the report, there are reasonable wind resource areas in the northern and central areas of the Philippine archipelago, some of which are in waters shallow enough for fixed foundation offshore wind.
There is one area suitable for fixed foundations in the Guimaras Strait with 7 GW of technical potential. Three main areas suitable for floating offshore wind are north of Luzon and to the north and south of the Mindoro Island. The largest of these areas is off the south coast of Mindoro with a technical potential of 53 GW. The Guimaras Strait which is the location of one of the projects mentioned above was highlighted as having 7 GW of technical potential.
(Source: Business World, Asian Power, offshoreWIND.Biz)
