RP to harness typhoons as energy source

RP to harness typhoons as energy source

SINGAPORE (AFP): The Philippines on Saturday asked investors to help the country harness nature's destructive forces -- volcanoes and typhoons -- as energy sources.

Philippine Energy Secretary Vincent Perez, making a presentation to Singapore businessmen here, highlighted investment opportunities in geothermal and wind power to generate electricity.

Geothermal power accounts for about 24 percent of the country's energy needs with current installed capacity at 1,931 megawatts, making the Philippines the second biggest user of geothermal power after the United States, he said.

There is potential to generate 730 megawatts more of electricity from 11 prospect areas, said Perez, who is among a 50-member delegation accompanying President Gloria Arroyo on a state visit here.

He said the Philippines, located in the "Ring of Fire" dotted by volcanoes, has huge potential to tap geothermal energy, which is sourced from heat generated in the bowels of the earth.

With the Philippines also located along the Pacific typhoon belt, the country also was aiming to tap wind power as an energy source, the minister said.

"Philippine wind energy potential could be as much as 70,000 megawatts," he told a business forum organized by Singapore's Keppel Group, a key investor in the Philippines.

A wind farm costing US$54 million is being built in the northern province of Ilocos Norte from Japanese official development aid, he said.

The project involves the installation of 56 units of 750 kilowatt turbine generators in the town of Burgos.

An average of 20 typhoons from the Pacific Ocean strike the Philippines a year. Volcanoes also dot the archipelago of 7,100 islands, including Mount Pinatubo whose eruption in 1991 altered weather patterns worldwide for years.

There are also business opportunities for joint natural gas exploration near the offshore Camago-Malampaya field near the western island of Palawan -- the country's biggest natural gas find so far.

The privatization of the state-run National Power Corp. is another investment area, with plans to separately offer its transmission and generation facilities.

Perez said the power transmission facilities will opened to bids from a monopoly to be supervised by an energy regulatory body to check abuses.

The generation facilities can be offered in pieces ranging from 250 megawatts to 1,000 megawatts, he said.