MGen eyes offshore wind projects
BY LENIE LECTURA – APRIL 26, 2022
from Business Mirror
Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen) has signified its interest to develop offshore wind power projects and team up with foreign investors.
“Yes, we are very interested in offshore wind. These are huge investments. These are huge tracks of offshore wind that is available in the Philippines. We are seriously looking at it. Most likely we will be tapping some foreign investors,” said MGen President Jaime Azurin.
The company said it has yet to work on the project details. “First and foremost, you still have to do your wind mast, which will take one to two years and then you decide investment.”
The power generation arm of the Manila Electric Co. continues to ramp up its renewable energy (RE) investments, targeting 1,500MW of RE capacity in the next seven years.
“After the first quarter of next year, we would have ramped up about 240MW of renewable projects online,” Azurin said.
The RE projects that are already ongoing construction are the 75MWac solar in Baras, Rizal, in partnership with Mitsui; 68MWac solar Ilocos Norte, in partnership with Vena; and the 45MWac solar in Cordon, Isabela, in partnership with Mitsui. These are about 190MW, in addition to MGen’s existing 50MW BulacanSol, which has been operating since May last year.
“There are still a lot more on the construction of large scale wind farm as well as other storage energy projects in the coming years.”
Other RE projects under pre-development includes large-scale wind farm and solar-energy storage. “We’ll have a better report sometime maybe in the middle of next year when we have finalized the plan for the large-scale wind farm as well as battery energy storage system.”
A new roadmap released recently by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the World Bank Group shows that the Philippines has the potential to install 40 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power.
The Philippines Offshore Wind Roadmap charts out the potential for developing a robust offshore wind industry in the Philippines in two potential scenarios. The low-growth scenario provides a roadmap for installing offshore wind at levels in line with the DOE’s national renewable energy program, and the high-growth scenario provides a roadmap for installing much higher levels that could be sufficient to drive competition, investments, and more cost reduction.
Analysis of the low-growth scenario suggests that the Philippines has the potential to install 6GW of offshore wind by 2050, making up 5 percent of the country’s electricity supply. Analysis of the high-growth scenario shows the potential to install 40GW making up 45 percent of its electricity supply. To achieve these scenarios, the roadmap provides guidance on actions that must be taken by the government in collaboration with the stakeholders, including putting in place a long-term plan for offshore wind until 2050 as part of a decarbonized energy mix; establishing offshore wind development zones through further marine spatial planning; investment in transmission, port and other energy infrastructure upgrades; and increasing collaboration with industry and other relevant government agencies.
The other day, AC Energy Corp. (ACEN) said it has already identified possible sites for offshore wind power projects.
“We have identified possible sites in the Philippines and Vietnam while we’re currently pursuing studies through pre-development work.
In our home market, ACEN has already secured wind energy service contracts for sites in Batangas and Manila Bay. These are, however, medium to large term initiatives that will depend on commercial and financial and technical feasibility of potential projects,” said ACEN Chief Development Officer Jose Maria Zabaleta.
