The Department of Energy (DOE) is working with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to assess the capability of nine ports as supporting infrastructure for offshore wind development.
DOE assistant secretary Mylene Capongol said at the sidelines of the Nordic Chamber of Commerce Philippines Wind Energy forum that it would hold a series of meetings to determine the ports’ readiness for OSW projects.
Capongcol said that based on international experience, new ports should be built or existing ones needed to be re-purposed. “The ports for offshore wind will also become a staging area to house the turbines, blades,” Capongcol said.
Capongcol said among the ports identified are in Currimao, Ilocos Norte; Mabini, Batangas; Mindoro; and Port Irene in Cagayan Valley.
She said the existing ports needed to be upgraded to serve the technical requirements of OSW developers.
“We have not planned for it. Even the environmental, even our service contracting, we need to amend it—the omnibus guidelines to address the specific requirements and support for offshore wind,” Capongcol said.
She said the ADB study would be completed next year.
Capongol said port owners should be encouraged to develop their infrastructure to accommodate OSW projects because of the increasing number of OSW service contracts.
“When we lifted the 60:40 requirement to allow 100 percent [foreign ownership], there were a lot of foreign companies interested to develop offshore wind,” she said.
The World Bank has identified 178,000 MW of OSW potential for the Philippines from six potential wind corridors.
These potential OSW areas are northwest Luzon, Manila area, northern Mindoro, southern Mindoro, Guimaras strait and Negros/Panay area.
The DOE has so far awarded 79 OSW contracts with total potential capacity of 61,931 MW spread across the country.