Tuesday, December 23, 2008

The magic of wind power


Wind power is among the renewable energy sources that will banish our oil dependence.The Philippines has Southeast Asia’s first wind farm. It is in Ilocos Norte. The wind is virtually free and very easy to harness and endlessly abundant.


The windmills do not look like the romantic ones of Don Quijote de la Mancha and the paintings of Van Gogh. They look and work like electric fans turned backward. Instead of electricity turning the fan blades to generate wind, the wind turns the fans (or rotors) that create electricity.

Wind power is clean. The windmills produce electricity without pollution and waste.
Twenty windmills stand in an arc facing north. Spaced 326 meters apart, they are aligned in nine kilometers of shoreline that spans five villages. The Ilocos wind from the sea is unobstructed.
The NorthWind Bangui Bay wind farm—in Barangay Baruyen just off the national highway, 54 kilometers north of the capital Laoag—supplies about half of the annual energy needs of Ilocos Norte. Privately financed with a $53-million grant from Denmark, the Bangui wind farm has a lifespan of over 20 years and saves about 15 million liters of diesel oil a year. Northwind is eyeing another 40 MW wind power project in Cagayan province.

More wind farms will be built.

The Department of Energy launched the First Philippine Wind Power Contracting Round early this year. Department of Energy offered 16 wind sites. Philippine Hybrid Energy Systems, Inc. was awarded three power contracts for wind projects in Marinduque; Baleno, Masbate and Tablas, Romblon with a combined 30 MW of capacity.

-Asia Renewable Energy Corp. won a contract for a potential 30-MW wind project in Sual, Pangasinan and San Carlos Wind Power Corp. in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental, also won a contract for a 25-MW wind farm.


ref: themanilatimes

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