Proposed windfarm over town watershed creates controversy

>> Sunday, December 16, 2012



By Gina Dizon 

SAGADA, Mountain Province – A proposed windfarm here, to be constructed over a watershed and considered the first in the country,  is generating controversy as the company which will build it has not yet sufficiently answered questions on its viability and effect on the environment.

PhilCarbon chairman Rufino Bumasang said he is not the right person to answer technical questions related to the proposed facility atop Langsayan- Pilaw  ridge when asked by radio staff and  listeners in a panel interview here at  Radio Sagada last Dec. 8.

Questions included effects on water systems and growth of trees of wind turbines. 

The Langsayan-Pilaw  site for the  proposed windfarm is a critical watershed which cradles  water supply to  nearby  barangays of  the northern  areas  of  Sagada- Bangaan, Madongo, Aguid, Pide and Fidelisan- and  water- needy Poblacion including  nearby barangays of the neighboring  municipality of Besao.

Bumasanga, an engineer who sits as chairman of  the Manila-based Philcarbon firm said the project  shall avoid hitting water sources.  

He added PhilCarbon shall soon provide technical details of  the project.  

Tons of cement, aluminum and steel are the foundation of wind turbines. As to how tall, deep and wide the turbines are and its effect on the environment is not within the knowledge of  Bumasang who said the right people to  answer the technical questions shall be the executive officers of the company’s  project.

The  facility, with height  measuring to as high as  80 meters and rotor blades  measuring  some 65 meters long  is projected to  generate 15 megawatts of  electrical  energy. 

The number of turbines to be built on the mountain ridge is not yet determined.  One megawatt is projected to cost $24.8 million each.

In the same development, Bumasang  said an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC)  had already been issued by  the  Department of  Environment and Natural Resources for the project.   

Provincial Environmental Environment and Natural Resources Office PENRO) for Mountain Province Officer Manuel Pogeyed said  he has not yet seen a copy of the windfarm’s  ECC  nor  Environmental Impact Assessment supposed to be undertaken by  Philcarbon. 

The EIA is a pre-requisite to the issuance of an ECC.
Pogeyed said in a separate interview the ECC shall be  subjected to validation by communities affected.   

A consultation  was conducted May this year where  Pogeyed  stressed  “local particularities” have  to be  taken note of by  Philcarbon in its  windfarm project.

Philcarbon through its president Ruth Owen has  said during the May consultation that  the firm shall be conducting an environmental impact study  before the  year ends. The proposed windmills, should this pursue is the  first windfarm to be built on a watershed in the country.  

When asked on whether or not there is lack of electricity needs in Mountain Province,  Bumasang said  there is a need to stabilize the grid and minimize brownouts.

Another concern  posed during  said  panel interview are carbon credits which moves Philcarbon to do the project.  Bumasang said he  “does not  know anything about that”.

Though Ruth Owen in an interview last May said PhilCarbon is entering into the windfarm project because of the availability of  carbon credits.

European Carbon Fund for one, purchases carbon credits. One megawatt installed of wind energy creates a yearly  carbon revenue of 15,000 to 20,000 Euro in hard currency.

Bumasang said that share of host communities on income generated from the proposed windfarm can be ‘negotiated’.

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