Wind energy in Philippines: EDC gets FIT for Burgos wind farm

Geothermal firm Energy Development Corp. (EDC) has received the certificate of compliance for its Burgos wind power project in Ilocos, the company said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday.

 

With the certification, EDC’s 150-megawatt wind farm is now entitled to the feed-in-tariff (FIT) rate of P8.53 per kilowatt-hour from Nov. 11, 2014 to Nov. 2034.

FIT is a set of incentives given to renewable energy players. Under the system, renewable energy companies are entitled to the following rates: P9.68 per kwh for solar power, P8.53 per kwh for wind and P5.90 per kwh for run-of-river hydroelectric power.

EDC president and chief operating officer Richard Tantoco earlier urged other renewable energy players to invest in the sector.

“The transparent and predictable regulatory regime we have in the Philippines should encourage more players to pursue much needed renewable energy investments in the country. Few people know that our country is built on an island-arc setting characterized by volcanism, and in such settings we will not have large reserves of oil, natural gas and coal. We badly need RE to help us become less reliant on volatile imports,” he said.

The Burgos wind project is the largest wind farm project so far in the country. It consists of 50 units of Vestas V90 wind turbine generators, with a rated capacity of three megawatts each.

EDC said the project could generate about 370 gigawatt-hours of power every year and avoid an estimated 200,000 tons of carbon emissions.

“We are also happy to help boost the Luzon grid with 150 MW of clean, reliable power and address the looming power shortage in Luzon and Visayas,” Tantoco said.

The project mark’s EDC’s first foray into the wind energy business and its single largest investment to date, with a total of $450 million poured into the project.

The amount includes the $315 million in project financing with leading international and local banks led by EKF, Denmark’s export credit agency.