National Unity Party (NUP) president LRay Villafuerte sees the development of green power—particularly of wind, solar and other variable renewable energy (VRE) sources—as a new magnet for investments, more so now when the Marcos administration has put on the fast track the country’s transition from fossil fuel to clean and sustainable energy.
“VRE development promises to be the new wellspring for investments from overseas green conglomerates as global investors start appreciating the heightened efforts by our government to fast-track the energy transition to clean and sustainable energy, in step with President Marcos’ commitment to provide clean, cheap and ample power to Filipino consumers on his watch,” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte issued this statement following the recent inauguration of the Manila office of the Danish firm Copenhagen Offshore Partners (COP), which has committed to invest an initial $30 million or about P1.7 billion for the preparation and pre-development activities for the first of its four offshore and onshore wind power projects in the Philippines.
The Department of Energy (DOE) has pointed to the “strong interest” of private sector investors, especially from countries considered as the global leaders in offshore wind (OSW) technology such as Denmark, Norway and the United Kingdom (UK).
During the formal opening of the COP office at the Bonifacio Global City (BGC), its officials said that its four would-be wind farms are projected to require total investments of $5.5 billion or P319 billion and generate a combined 2,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
Villafuerte said the first of COP’s four projects in the Philippines is the $3-billion, 1,000 MW offshore wind (OSW) farm that the Danish investor is putting up on San Miguel Bay in his homeprovince of CamSur.
Once up and running hopefully before President Marcos leaves office in 2028, Villafuerte said this OSW farm on CamSur’s San Miguel Bay will become the first and biggest wind power project in the country and that will employ an estimated 2,500 people.
Among those present at the COP’s BGC office inauguration were Secretaries Raphael Perpetuo Lotilla of energy and Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga of environment and natural resources, Special Assistant to the President for investment and economic affairs Secretary Frederick Go, Danish Ambassador to the Philippines Franz-Michael Skjold Mellbin and Philippine Ambassador to Denmark Leo Herrera-Lim.
The Department of Energy (DOE) has pointed to the “strong interest” of private sector investors, especially from countries considered as the global leaders in offshore wind (OSW) technology such as Denmark, Norway and the United Kingdom (UK).
Based on the OSW Roadmap of the World Bank, the Philippines has the capacity to deploy 40 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind electricity by 2050, which, according to Lotilla, is “more than enough to cover the 500,000 MW projected peak demand the country will require by 2040 based on DOE’s medium to long-term power outlook.”
The DOE has thus far awarded 92 OSW service contracts to 38 RE developers with a potential capacity of 66 GW combined.
COP is the exclusive offshore developer of the Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, one of the largest dedicated renewable investment firms in the world, and which is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark.
For its preparatory and pre-development activities on its San Miguel Bay project in CamSur, COP officials said they have, among others, already filed their application for pre-development environmental compliance certificate (ECC) with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), completing wind measurement at the project site, participating in the green energy auction (GEA) of the Department of Energy (DOE), and ensuring grid connectivity of their generated capacity to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) network.
COP has also deployed vertical and scanning LIDAR (light detection and ranging) devices to measure and gather wind data at the CamSur project site.
Citing a report from CIP partner Robert Helms, Villafuerte said that initial investments for pre-development activities have reached $30 million.
Total COP capital expenditures (capex) investments in the San Miguel wind farm plus its three more wind power ventures in Pangasinan, Northern Samar and Nueva Ecija are projected to exceed $5.5 billion.
CIP associate partner Przemek Lupa said in a media report that the Philippines has become a “key market” for this firm because of our country’s “strong fundamentals and the high growth … the Philippines is a liberalized market. The power sector is liberalized, which as you know in this region, is a very, very unique feature.”
Lupa said in that report that the most important factor in the Philippines is that “renewables and the energy transition get tremendous support from the government. And this is really particularly felt during this Marcos administration.”
“What we found in the DOE and in the government in general—because we do business in many countries—and what we found here is the sincerity of the entire administration to push for renewable energy and to push for energy transition,” Lupa said.
Villafuerte noted that after emerging as a hub for ecotourism and extreme sports, CamSur will likely become the country’s center for wind energy generation as the COP-funded San Miguel Bay wind farm is just one among at least 16 facilities harnessing this RE source in his province.
“This pioneering wind farm to be built by Danish infrastructure investment on San Miguel Bay, along with 15 more OSW projects, will help the Marcos administration accelerate its planned transition from fossil fuel to renewables for the radical reduction of the Philippines’ carbon footprint,” Villafuerte said.
“These 16 wind power projects in CamSur, which have a total potential capacity of 7,668 MW of electricity, support the Marcos administration’s decarbonization goal of significantly increasing the share of indigenous sources like wind and solar in our country’s energy mix,” he said.
He added that, “These CamSur wind farms will go a long way in helping the President achieve his goal of ensuring energy security while at the same time leading the Philippines to a low-carbon future, in keeping with its commitment to generate 35% of the domestic electricity requirement from RE sources by 2030 and a higher 50% from renewables by 2040.”
Offshore wind farms use turbines that are built in the water to generate power from winds blowing across the sea, and are considered more efficient in producing energy for electricity because of the higher speed of winds in the ocean.
Onshore wind farms, on the other hand, make use of turbines built on land to generate wind energy.
However, both offshore and onshore facilities using wind for generating energy, along with other VRE sources like solar power, are essential to the global switch from dirty, non-renewable fossil fuel to a zero-carbon electricity system, said Villafuerte.
Aside from helping reduce the country’s carbon footprint, Villafuerte noted that these CamSur wind farms will further stimulate economic activity and tourism in the province and create several thousand jobs.
“These green or clean energy projects will likewise boost CamSur’s tourism business as these would-be wind farms are expected to attract tourists to the green project sites,” he said.
San Miguel Bay is on the borders of both CamSur and Camarines Norte, but the project is actually located on this bay’s southern part in CamSur.
Villafuerte said that one of the 15 other RE projects in CamSur is the Libmanan onshore wind farm, which is the first ever project in wind power generation of the Aboitiz Power Corp. (AboitizPower), and which this Malabon-based firm is undertaking through a joint venture (JV) with Mainstream Renewable Power Corp.
Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Mainstream has green energy projects with a combined capacity of 100 GW, and has raised energy and related infrastructure investments totaling 19 billion euros from over 140 international institutional investors.
Danish Ambassador Franz-Michael Skjold Mellbin earlier said that, “Working closely together with CIP, the Philippine government and the local government of Camarines Sur have taken a key step towards the largest offshore wind farm in the Philippines, bringing jobs to the people of Camarines Sur and power to fuel continued economic growth in the country.”
CIP offshore wind co-CEO for the Philippines Rune Damgaard said that “CIP is very grateful for the incredible support it has received from the local government of Camarines Sur and the various national and regional agencies.”
