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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