By JED MACAPAGAL
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is eyeing to produce by October the action plan on the repurposing of 10 ports as infrastructure for local offshore wind (OSW) developments.
Shigeru Yamamura, ADB principal energy specialist, said the notice to proceed to the consultants tapped to undertake the action plan will be issued by the end of the month or early next month. The action plan is part of the pre-feasibility study on the repurposing of the ports.
“We recently completed the OSW regulatory framework development for the DOE (Department of Energy) and ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission). We are also going to supply recommendations for environment and social safeguard standards for OSW sometime next month,”
Yamamura said in a forum co-organized by the DOE yesterday.
The 10 ports identified by ADB are: the Port of Currimao, Port of Irene, Port of Subic, Bauan International Port, Philippine National Oil Co. ESB Port, Tabacco Port, Iloilo Commercia Port Complex, Banago Port and Pulupandan Port.
Yamamura said to finance the re-purposing of ports for OSW development, sovereign loans, non-sovereign loans, concessional financing and partial credit guarantee can be tapped .
“…I believe there will be no one size, fits all financing arrangements to support the 10 ports.
My initial assessment is that capital expenditure and projected revenues as well as certainties will be entirely different according to the function and location and the government timeframe,” Yamamura said.
He said ADB will continue to dialogue with the private sector
to understand their challenges and preferences on port development for sustainable OSW development towards 2030 and beyond.
The ADB said the Philippine government can choose priority areas of the study in order to further speed up its completion.
In the same event, DOE Undersecretary Giovanni Carlo Bacordo said the ports were deemed the most feasible to be repurposed as marshalling ports as they are also located near awarded OSW contracts.
Marshalling ports are special ports utilized for collecting and storing wind turbine components prior to loading them on turbine installation vessels.
Bacordo added ADB is also set to assist the Philippines in capacitating personnel for marshalling ports to serve OSW developments.
A study said the Philippines’ total technical potential for OSW is estimated at 178 gigawatts (GW).
To date, the DOE has awarded a total of 82 offshore wind projects, with a potential capacity of 63.359 GW. These projects are located north of Luzon, west of Metro Manila, north and south of Mindoro, Panay and Guimaras Strait.
However, all these wind energy service contracts (WESCs) are currently in the pre-development stage, where assessments on resources, site suitability and project viability are being undertaken.
Out of the 82 awarded offshore wind WESCs, 12 of them stand out as they were awarded to five 100 percent foreign-owned companies following the lifting of foreign ownership restrictions for all renewable energy project developments in November 2022.