Bright future for wind-market growth seen in RP, rest of Asia

Bonn, Germany—Use of wind energy in Asia, including the Philippines, is on the rise as governments face increasing energy demand, climate change and unsteady prices of non- renewable-energy sources such as coal, crude oil, natural gas, said the Belgium-based Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).

Steve Sawyer, secretary-general of the GWEC, said amid the threats posed by climate change and the global economic downturn in the past two years, Asian governments have heavily invested in clean-energy sources such as wind.

“Wind energy is the most attractive solution to Asia’s energy challenges,” Sawyer told journalists, adding that Asia accounts now for more than 36 percent of the newly installed wind turbines, with China as the leading country which installed last year 13 turbines, producing 803 megawatts (MW) of wind power.

Wind energy is produced in most cases by gigantic three-bladed wind turbines located on top of tall towers on reverse principle of ventilators as they use wind to make electricity.

Sawyer pointed out that in the Philippines, the government needs to set a regulatory framework and tariffs for wind farms to orient their energy infrastructure toward a low-carbon development.

“The Philippines has an enormous potential to develop its wind-power system, but government policies in place will win more investments from project developers in the wind market,” Sawyer said.

The $50-million Bangui wind farm in Ilocos Norte which was built in 2005 was the first large-scale wind-power plant in the Philippines and Southeast Asia. The wind farm, which supplies 40 percent of the electricity requirement of Ilocos Norte, was built by the Northwind Power Development Corp.

Sawyer added that enormous exploitation of wind energy is also seen in Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia. He emphasized that the uptake on the growth of wind power in the market also depends on government incentives and subsidies.

Asia’s wind-power industry could generate $4.02 billion in revenues in 2016 from just $1.95 billion in 2009, according to the Industry analyst Frost & Sullivan.

Sawyer said the biggest trend in the rise of wind power in the last few years is the dramatic growth in the markets in China, India and the United States, countries among the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases.

Earlier, China has committed to invest $220 billion in renewable energy over the next two years. Europe will continue to host the largest wind capacity until 2013.

According to the GWEC data, global wind-energy capacity grew by 31.9 percent last year, even higher than the average over the past decade, to reach total global installations of more than 158 turbines, producing 505 MW at the end of 2009.

“In practical terms, there are three options for making major emissions reductions in the power sector out to 2020 and these are efficiency, fuel switching from coal to gas, and renewables, mostly wind and hydropower,” Sawyer said. –Imelda V. Abaño / Correspondent, Businessmirror