US firm eyes 36 areas for wind, solar plants

Manila TImes.net

BY EUAN PAULO C. AÑONUEVO REPORTER

CALIFORNIA-BASED Deep Ocean Power Inc. is keen on complementing its proposed ocean energy projects in the Philippines with wind farms and solar power installations.

Jonathan Wong, vice president for project development of the firm’s local unit Deep Ocean Power Philippines Inc., said the 36 sites the company is eyeing for ocean power installations are capable of harnessing other renewable energy sources.

“Each site will be used not only for OTEC (ocean thermal energy conversion) but for on-shore and off-shore wind farms and solar energy as well, if it is determined they are suitable for such technology,” he said.

OTEC technology is a method of generating electricity by tapping temperature differences between the warm ocean surface waters and the deeper cold waters.

Wong said the company is already “in the process of finalizing the implementation of the first power plant hopefully by the middle of this year.”

The company’s proposed sites are in Ilocos Norte, La Union, Pangasinan, Zambales, Occidental Mindoro, Isabela, Aurora, Masbate, Antique, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Zamboanga del Norte, Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, Misamis Oriental, Surigao del Norte, Davao Oriental, Davao del Sur, Sulu, Southern Leyte, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Ilocos Sur, Sorsogon and Albay.

The Department of Energy (DOE) earlier awarded the company a license to develop ocean power technology in these areas amid the government’s bid to reduce the country’s reliance on oil imports and to cut climate change-causing gas emissions.

The DOE estimates that the country has the potential power generating capacity of over 170,000 megawatts from the ocean. This figure is more than 10 times the power generating capacity of the country’s existing power plants combined.

However, the investment cost for the technology is higher than other renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power installations, which come at roughly over $2.5 million per megawatts to put up.

“Ours is a little bit higher but it’s baseload. And what happens is, with wind and solar, they only operate between 30 [percent] and 50 percent of the time, so your cost proportionately is skewed because you have baseload 24/7. It’s baseload 24/7, we can operate 100 percent,” Derek Murray, Deep Ocean (Philippines) vice president, said earlier.