The promise and pitfalls of wind power
- February 26, 2025
As of June 2024, the Philippine government has awarded 319 wind power projects with a potential capacity of 99,845 megawatts (MW). With wind power riding high in the Philippine renewable energy (RE) landscape, we take a look at its different applications, its advantages and disadvantages, and how we can effectively harness this power for energy security.
Wind power 101
From the sails of ancient Egyptian ships to the windmills in quaint Dutch villages, humans have been using wind power for ages. Today’s towering wind turbines follow the same simple principle: the wind spins the turbine’s blades, which are attached to a rotor. The rotor shaft then spins a generator to create electricity.
There are three major applications of wind energy: land-based, distributed, and offshore.
- Land-based: Wind turbines installed on land by companies generate and deliver bulk power to the grid
- Distributed: Operating on a smaller scale, these land-based turbines are installed on the “‘customer’ side of the electric meter”, providing energy for a particular community, industry, or facility
- Offshore: Massive wind turbines that can be taller than the Statue of Liberty capture ocean winds to generate enormous amounts of energy; they can be anchored to the seafloor (fixed-bottom wind turbines) or installed on floating platforms (floating wind turbines)
(Also read: DOE: Offshore wind projects to power over 16GW in new energy capacity by 2028)
The pros and cons of wind power
Wind power has plenty going for it. Wind is a clean, abundant, and renewable energy source. It creates no carbon emissions, is not harmful to the environment, and will never run out. And because it uses free and unlimited fuel, wind power has a low operating cost.
On the minus column, it is an intermittent and unpredictable resource: its strength and direction fluctuate. When there’s no wind, turbines can’t generate power. Wind power’s intermittent availability can make it difficult to integrate into electrical grids and will require an energy storage system (ESS).
In 2021, Northwestern Europe suffered “wind droughts”, with wind speeds falling 15 percent below average. The abnormally low wind intensity had a devastating impact on wind power generation. As the United Kingdom witnessed its least windy period in sixty years, the country had to restart two closed coal power plants to offset the effects of the wind drought.
“Wind drought can be particularly serious as the relationship between wind and electricity production is not linear,” explained Shilpa Gahlot, an insurance research specialist focusing on ecosystem services. “A ten percent wind speed decline can result in more than thirty percent reduced output.”
In addition, wind turbines are noisy, could ruin a beautiful view, and could harm local wildlife. And while the electricity it produces is cheap, the initial investment to build the turbines and upgrade related infrastructure is not.
(Also read: Renewables make up lion’s share of new energy projects in 2025)
Wind power in the Philippines
“The Philippines’ waters have conditions that are well-suited to offshore wind. This abundant, indigenous energy resource offers an opportunity for the Philippines to boost energy security, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase renewable energy supply,” said Ndiamé Diop, the World Bank Country Director for Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand.
The World Bank estimates that the Philippines has over 178 gigawatts (GW) of technical offshore wind (OSW) potential.
“With over 22 percent of the population employed in agriculture, land in the Philippines is a precious resource,” the World Bank said in its Philippines Offshore Wind Roadmap. “By making careful use of marine areas, offshore wind could help reduce demands for land use.”
To facilitate the country’s energy transition, one of the key strategies of the Department of Energy (DOE) is the acceleration of renewable energy with a special focus on offshore wind.
Last year, the DOE announced that it issued 92 OSW service contracts with a potential capacity of 65 GW, demonstrating the keen interest in OSW from local and foreign RE developers.
Barriers to success
But is the country ready to accelerate OSW development to reach our RE targets?
According to Dr. Eduardo Araral, Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, a key barrier to success is infrastructure readiness.
“Port upgrades and modernized transmission lines, which could represent up to 20-25% of the total cost of offshore wind projects, are critical for success,” Dr. Araral explained. “Without these improvements, delays in integrating new RE capacity into the grid could hinder the country’s ability to meet its renewable energy targets.”
Another concern is the high cost of generating and storing renewable energy.
“While the price of renewable energy technologies has been steadily declining globally — solar energy costs have dropped by 89% since 2009, and wind energy by 70% — the cost of energy storage remains prohibitive,” said Dr. Araral.
“As of 2021, large-scale battery storage costs hovered around $137 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), a significant expense that adds to the overall cost of renewable energy systems. Until storage costs decrease, conventional energy sources will still be needed to provide backup power, particularly for managing the intermittency of solar and wind power,” Araral added.
(Also read: How transition credits can derisk the nation’s switch to green energy)
Should consumers have to bear the additional costs of upgrades and additional systems, renewable energy will aggravate economic inequality.
“To avoid burdening low- and middle-income households, the government should treat this infrastructure as a public good, subsidizing the costs through general taxation rather than passing them directly onto consumers,” Dr. Araral proposed.
Wind power could have the Philippines riding high on its clean energy goals, but we must ensure that lower-income households are not left twisting in the wind. For a just transition to clean energy, everybody must count — or nobody does.
Sources:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fXxkZPumCjh7dYlZYk817EOukPO_08_n/view
https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/how-do-wind-turbines-work
https://www.energy.gov/eere/wind/articles/top-10-things-you-didnt-know-about-offshore-wind-energy
https://www.preventionweb.net/news/climate-change-and-wind-power-winds-change
https://manilastandard.net/?p=314443513
