New wind farms in Ilocos Norte and Panay have added 303 MW to the country’s power supply, helping cushion consumers from a projected power shortage this March.
Climate change solutions-provider World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) welcomed the timely start of operations for the new wind farms in Guimaras and Ilocos Norte. Its ‘Seize the Wind’ campaign aims to increase the Feed-in Tariff (FiT) allocation for wind energy from 200 MW to 500 MW.
Wind farms take faster to build and are becoming more economical power sources, freeing energy generation companies and consumers alike from the need to import expensive fossil-fuels like coal and oil.
Wind farms take just about a year to go online, compared with conventional fossil-fuel power plants which can take up to four years to construct. About 70% of Philippine electricity is currently generated from fossil-fuels, 90% of which are imported at varying prices. Humanity’s continued reliance on fossil-fuels is the primary cause of climate change, the impacts of which are becoming more destructive yearly.
“We are hopeful the Department of Energy shall immediately increase the wind FiT allocation,” says WWF-Philippines climate and energy unit head Atty. Gia Ibay. “In fact, based on data from the Wind Energy Development Association of the Philippines, the month with the highest wind energy output occurs during March of each year. Incidentally, this is the same month when our projected 2015 power shortage is slated to worsen. By ‘Seizing the Wind’, we can augment our power supply this 2015.”
