President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. expects leading German wind and solar farms developer and operator WPD GmbH to bring modern technology to the Philippines as it plans to invest PhP392.4 billion in the Philippines by setting up offshore wind farms.
“Thank you for coming in and to continue having an interest in the Philippines. I think that it is a very fertile investment especially for your industry, and business. And we are of course, like everybody else, working very hard to move the share of energy production and fossil fuels to renewable and wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear,” President Marcos said during a meeting with WPD GmbH officials led by Björn Nullmeyer, the company’s Chief Finance Officer.
“So, I hope we can avail these new technologies now in terms—because–all our wind farms now are land-based, we haven’t done anything offshore. So, there’s much–we have much to learn from organizations like yours on how to handle it. What would be the capital requirements? What would be technical requirements?” President Marcos remarked.
All of these investments in the energy sector are important because of the administration’s industrialization thrust with sufficient supply of energy becoming a critical part of its plans in the future, the President said, hoping that the Philippines can take advantage of the new technologies in wind power.
The country already has a good number of wind farms and there is still much potential, he pointed out. He said the country needs more expertise in determining where the suitable areas are.
The President set up the first commercially operated wind farm in Southeast Asia located in his hometown in Ilocos Norte when he was Governor of the province.
The WPD GmbH plans to invest PhP392.4 billion in the Philippines to set up offshore wind farms in Cavite, Negros Occidental, and Guimaras, the biggest undertaking registered with the Board of Investments (BOI) in February last year.
The President met the wpd GmbH officials in Berlin to discuss status updates on the BOI-registered OSW projects (Cavite and Negros (1 & 2) Projects with a combined capacity of 3,260 MW valued at P400 billion).
The meeting was also an opportunity to share updates on the new solar, onshore, and offshore wind projects with a combined rated capacity of 1,662 MW, located in Aklan, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, Abra, Iloilo, Bulacan, Mindoro, and Antique with investments valued at P137 billion.
The WPD GmbH develops and operates onshore wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) projects in Europe, Asia, and on the American continent.
Headquartered in Bremen, Germany, the wpd GmbH is actively engaged in 29 countries worldwide. PND
