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Friday, March 29, 2024

Puerto Galera’s wind farm is newest tourist attraction

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PUERTO GALERA, Oriental Mindoro—Eight tall towers of a wind farm power project being built on a mountain top here will help boost the ecotourism industry of this resort town, local officials said.

The wind farm is on the highland village of Baclayan, 900 meters or 2,700 feet above sea level. It overlooks the famous coves within the Verde Island Passage, the center of the world’s marine biodiversity area called the Coral Triangle.

Mayor Rockey D. Ilagan said the “the towering 230-foot-tall wind towers, once completed this year, will have a commanding view of our town’s famous white beaches and many coves that will become a spectacle to our visitors, foreigners and locals alike.”

Ilagan and his staff inspected the project site of the 48-megawatt wind farm power project in Baclayan together with engineers of the Philippine Hybrid Energy Systems Inc. (PHESI), which runs the farm.

The officials also inspected the source of spring water in Baclayan, the primary source of fresh water supply in Puerto Galera. The local government is planning to construct a major water facility here for distribution to local consumers, including residents and business owners in the town proper.

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An eight-kilometer, 10-meter wide access road starting from the national road to the mountain top of Baclayan is also under construction. “The access road straddles the forests and hills where one can hear chirping of birds,” Ilagan said.

Of PHESI’s 220 employees at the wind farm, 118 are indigenous people receiving a minimum salary of P330 daily. The Mangyans are employed either as flagmen, safety or environmental aides, or nursery workers. None of the IPs are employed as skilled workers “because they are still being trained,” company representatives explained.

Mangyan Mayor Radencio Banaag, 61, the local tribe’s representative to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, said barangay health centers, basketball courts, multipurpose hall and other facilities are either being built or repaired by PHESI in Baclayan under its corporate social responsibility program.

“This project will help us a lot, especially the road they’re building. It would make it easier for us to bring our products down from the mountains to sell in the town market,” Banaag, the leader of the Iraya sub-tribe in Baclayan, said.

 He said the important thing for PHESI “is to follow the rules and the right process in doing its project.”

Eric Epa, PHESI site manager, said the wind rotors with three blades, with a diameter of 80 meters or 234 feet, will start arriving this June. The erection of the towers and the installation of the blades is slated for July, lasting for 65 days in a parallel construction, he added.

The first phase of the 48-megawatt wind farm is the construction of two separate towers, each with a height of 78 meters (234 feet), capable of generating 16 megawatts of electricity.

The whole project has eight towers whose construction will come in three phases. The first phase, which is ongoing, will be completed this December. 

“Once completed, it is expected to reduce the present power rate in the area from P13 per kilowatthour to only P6.50 per kwh,” an official of the electric cooperative here said.

“Tourism is one of the best drivers of inclusive growth. Puerto Galera will become conducive for expanding business in tourism, thereby improving the economy of our town. This wind farm project, aside from providing us cheap and clean power derived from renewable energy such as wind, will also infuse more economic opportunities to our people,” Ilagan said.

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