SUNDAY, 09 JANUARY 2011 18:09 HENRY EMPEÑO / CORRESPONDENT]
SUBIC BAY FREE PORT —With the global problem of climate change driving industries and governments toward sources of clean energy, the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) said it has approved a $125-million proposal to develop both solar and wind-power projects in this free port.
SBMA chairman Feliciano Salonga said on Friday that as the Subic Bay Free Port aims to be a pioneer in the field of renewable energy, SBMA officials have green-lighted the request of Subic Wind Power Generation Inc. (SWPGI) to establish a power-generating facility that would produce 100 to 200 megawatts (MW) of electricity.
Aside from helping stabilize power supply in the Luzon grid to which it shall be connected, the renewable-energy project will also bring the Subic Bay Free Port to the forefront of the local green-energy movement.
“Subic has long been a net-power consumer, but with this project we’re now entertaining the prospect of Subic as a net-power producer,” Salonga said in a statement.
“And what makes us more excited about this project is the fact that both wind and solar power are clean energy. This will also help us reduce the carbon footprint of the Subic Bay Free Port,” he added.
According to Ronnie Yambao, manager of the Manufacturing and Maritime Department of the SBMA Business and Investment Group, the SWPGI proposed last year to establish here a $75 million, 25-turbine wind farm that would yield about 50 MW of energy.
However, after making ocular surveys of the project sites at Subic’s Mount Santa Rita and Redondo Peninsula, the subsidiary of China-based Sunnew Investments Ltd. decided to also build a solar-energy facility with a generating capacity of 100 to 200 MW.
Sunnew is a subsidiary of China’s Red Blades Windtek Holdings Ltd., reputedly China’s sole manufacturer of high-performance wind-turbine blades destined for both domestic and global markets.
Altogether, SWPGI’s expanded proposal would now cost $125 million, utilize some 300 hectares of land, and generate 150 to 200 MW of power. The project will also employ about 150 workers and earn the SBMA some $816,000 in annual lease rentals, said Yambao.
Since September last year, SWPGI and its partner Jobin & Jobin Inc., along with consultants from the China-based survey firm HydroChina International Engineering Co. Ltd., had been conducting intensive surveys at Mount Sta. Rita and the Redondo Peninsula, Yambao said.
The initial topographic survey for the project was supposed to be finished on Dec.15, he said.
Meanwhile, SBMA administrator Armand Arreza gave the assurance that the Subic Bay Free Port would continue to have adequate power supply, even as the rest of the country may possibly face power shortages during peak-demand periods this year.
According to Arreza, the recommissioning in December of Subic’s 116-MW diesel-power plant has boosted local power supply and ensured unhampered operations for business locators in the Free Port.
“There is a lot of fear and apprehension that within two years, the country as a whole would face energy shortage starting 2011,” Arreza said in a separate statement. “But as always, the SBMA has taken the necessary steps ahead of whatever problem that may disrupt the robust economy in the Subic Bay free port.”
Arreza explained that the SBMA has awarded a five-year lease contract for the Subic power plant to One Subic Power Generation Corp. (OSPGC), after its contract with National Power Corp., which built the plant in 1994 and former plant operator Enron Power Corp., expired in 2009.
OSPGC later entered into a Power Administration and Management Agreement with Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp., which will be responsible for the administration and management of the entire generation output of the Subic diesel-power plant.
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