Bangui Wind Farm

Bangui Wind farm
Location of Bangui Wind farm in Philippines
Country Philippines
Location Bangui, Ilocos Norte
Coordinates 18°31′40″N 120°42′50″E / 18.52778°N 120.71389°E / 18.52778; 120.71389Coordinates: 18°31′40″N 120°42′50″E / 18.52778°N 120.71389°E / 18.52778; 120.71389
Commission date June 20, 2005
Owner(s) NorthWind Power Development Corporation
Wind farm
Type Onshore
Hub height 70 m (230 ft)
Power generation
Units operational 20 X 1.65 MW
Make and model Vestas: V82
Nameplate capacity 33 MW

Bangui Wind Farm is a wind farm in Bangui, Ilocos Norte, Philippines. The wind farm uses 20 units of 70-metre (230 ft) high Vestas V82 1.65 MW wind turbines, arranged on a single row stretching along a nine-kilometer shoreline off Bangui Bay, facing the West Philippine Sea.

Phase I of the NorthWind power project in Bangui Bay consists of 15 wind turbines, each capable of producing electricity up to a maximum capacity of 1.65 MW, for a total of 24.75 MW. The 15 on-shore turbines are spaced 326 metres (1,070 ft) apart, each 70 metres (230 ft) high, with 41 metres (135 ft) long blades, with a rotor diameter of 82 metres (269 ft) and a wind swept area of 5,281 square metres (56,840 sq ft).

Phase II, was completed on August 2008, and added 5 more wind turbines with the same capacity, and brought the total capacity to 33 MW. All 20 turbines describes a graceful arc reflecting the shoreline of Bangui Bay, facing the West Philippine Sea.

Location

The Northwind Bangui Bay Project is located at the municipality of Bangui, Ilocos Norte, Philippines. Located at the north-west tip of Luzon island, the windmills face the sea from where the wind blows towards the land. Its location along the shore is optimal in removing windbreaks and has a terrain roughness of 0. The site is free of any trees and vegetation, and stretches approximately 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) long and 100 metres (330 ft) wide. The area is undeveloped and uninhabited making it ideal as a site and poses no threat to the environment.

The location of the Philippines being near the Asia-Pacific monsoon belt is ideal for installing wind turbines. The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration attests that the Philippines has a mean average of about 31 watts per square meter (W/m2) of wind power density.

History

In 1996, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a wind resource analysis and mapping study. It concluded that various areas in the Philippines are ideal for wind power installation. These areas include Bangui and Burgos towns in Ilocos Norte, Batanes and Babuyan Islands, which are north of Luzon and the higher interior terrain of Mindoro, Samar, Leyte, Panay, Negros, Cebu, Palawan and Eastern Mindanao. The study led to the inception of the wind farm project. NorthWind Power Development Corp. developed (and maintains and operates) the project, while Vestas Wind Systems, a Danish firm, supplied the wind turbine-generator units (WTGs) for the site, similar to those already found in Denmark. The project was to have been developed in three phases.

Phase I of the project erected 15 wind turbines spaced 236 meters apart on-shore. This was inaugurated on June 18, 2005 and attended by Former First Lady Imelda Marcos, then Governor Bongbong Marcos, Former DOE Secretary Vincent Perez, Undersecretary Peter Abaya and Dr. Robert Yap, Jesuit priest and Project Director of CD4CDM project of klima, who also conducted the invocation and blessing of the wind turbines.

Ratified by the NorthWind Power Development Corp and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development through the World Bank Prototype Carbon Fund, the Northwind Bangui Bay Project was the first project in the Philippines to have the Emissions Reduction Purchase Agreement (ERPA) under the Clean Development Mechanism. The Bangui Bay Project is also the first Philippine recipient of the Carbon Emission Reduction Certificates (CER’s) from the Executive Board of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In 2006, the project produced a 5% discount of the weighted average price in the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) or a generated savings of approximately USD1.4 million (PhP 70 million) for the INEC electricity consumers. The project cost for Phase I amounted to USD$23 million.

Phase II was completed in June 2008 adding 5 more wind turbines carrying the same capacity as those in Phase I and raising the total capacity to 33MW. All of these formed the arc of Bangui Bay, a fusion of technological and natural elegance. Phase II raises the project’s power contribution to Ilocos Norte from 40% to 50%. Phase III is expected to raise the total expenditure for the whole project to USD$54 million.

NorthWind Power Devt. Corp. has started the construction of Phase III of the project where 6 new wind turbines will be erected with a total of 18 MW installed capacity. Siemens' SWT 108 3.0 MW will be installed in phase 3, where each wind turbines have an installed capacity of 3 MW and a rotor diameter of 108 meters. The project is targeted to be completed in the middle of 2014.

See also

External links

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