P5-B wind energy farm takes shape in Camarines Sur

A wind energy farm is set to rise in Camarines Sur that is expected to generate at least 60 megawatts of electricity and generate green jobs for the province that officials said they hoped to turn into the greenest in the country in terms of energy generation and use.

In a statement, Gov. Luis “LRay” Villafuerte Jr. said the wind energy farm is seen to draw in as much as P5 billion in investments into the province.

The governor said work on the project had started with the putting up of a meteorological tower at the project site.

He said the provincial government had also commissioned a study on green energy production and results are encouraging.

The study points to the availability of sources of biomass energy in the province. These could produce up to 75 MW of electricity from biomass plants and 11 MW from biogas plants, said Villafuerte.

The amount of energy from these sources could more than make up for an increase in power demand in Camarines Sur that is seen to rise to 22 MW until 2018.

Villafuerte said the province had also started putting up a 100-hectare bamboo plantation that would provide fuel for a power plant that could generate up to 25 MW more of electricity. The plantation could expand to 3,000 ha, he said.

Villafuerte said he was pushing for green energy as an alternative to fossil fuel.

Camarines Sur is fast emerging as one of the greenest provinces in the country and has earned plaudits for its flagship environmental effort, the El Verde Movement.

When it was launched in February 2011, it set a Guinness World Record for the most trees planted in a span of time—64,096 trees planted in one site in 15 minutes.

Within an hour, volunteers in the El Verde Movement planted a total of 585,566 trees in multiple sites.

In March last year, it set a new Guinness World Record for the planting of 1,009,029 mangrove saplings in one hour in Ragay town.

The movement has already planted a total of 12 million trees by the end of 2012.