Duterte Government To Develop Philippines First Tidal Energy Project This Year

Philippine government-owned and controlled corporation Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC) unit responsible for promoting, developing and implementing new and renewable energy sources in the country – PNOC Renewables Corporation – is partnering with H&WB Asia Pacific (Pte Ltd) Corporation to develop the country’s first tidal-energy project.

According to H&WB, the project will utilize Tidal In-stream Energy Conversion (TISEC) technology and it will be located in H&WB’s three concession areas in San Bernardino Strait between Matnog, Sorsogon, Capul and Dalupiri – both in Northern Samar.

“The cohesive partnership aims to establish a special purpose company (SPC) in the first half of 2017 to commence project finance and engineering works, thereby, launching the first-ever TISEC power not only in the Philippines but in ASEAN as well,” H&WB said.

H&WB had earlier performed ocean-resource assessment to determine the overall energy potential of San Bernardino Strait. It also carried out a thorough review and analysis of Tisec technologies.

The islands of Capul and San Antonio in San Bernardino Strait are in the Small Power Utilities Group fueled by diesel-power plants. Connection to electricity is limited, especially in Capul, where its islanders have electricity for only six hours a day.

French company Sabella SAS will be providing the technology.

“Sabella and H&WB have recently completed a detailed in situ bathymetry measurement, to move toward a full 3D current numerical model in order to locate the first demonstration project, which will consist of three to five turbines,” it explained.

“PNOC RC’s role is vital, and the MOU with H&WB and SABELLA is a pro-active strategy that can support the project’s success, more so, when PNOC RC decides to invest into the SPC,” H&WB said.

H&WB wants to deploy tidal power, because it is a green and cost-competitive alternative to fossil energies, and guarantees clean-power supply.

Source: Business Mirror