By Alena Mae S. Flores

THE biggest wind farm is expected to rise soon in Southeast Asia after Northpoint Wind Power Corp. announced it will build a 40-megawatt facility worth $95 million in Aparri, Cagayan.

Northpoint is a subsidiary of NorthWind Power Development Corp., the company that built the 33-MW wind farm in Bangui, Ilocos Norte, the largest so far in Southeast Asia.

NorthWind chairman Ferdinand Dumlao said they planned to start building the Aparri facility within the year, and that they were negotiating financing packages with Japanese, Danish and Spanish investors.

He said the company could now concentrate on the Aparri wind farm after it completed expanding the Bangui facility, which originally generated only 24.75MW for power distributors in Ilocos Norte.

The facility consists of 15 turbines on 70-meter towers on the town?s shore.

NorthWind, a joint venture with Danish investors, borrowed $13.1 million from the Danish International Development Agency in October last year to raise the Bangui facility?s capacity to 33MW at a total project cost of $50 milllion.

?We are pursuing our expansion plans because wind is a renewable form of energy, and it is very timely because of the passage of the Renewable Energy Bill. At the same time, wind projects are very environmental friendly,? Dumlao said.

He said the support of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Aparri Mayor Ismael Tumaru, and Cagayan Gov. Alvaro Antonio were crucial to the success of the project.

The passage of the Renewable Energy Bill, Dumlao said, would also help entice investors to pour more funds into the capital-intensive projects, which would help the government lessen its dependence on traditional fossil fuel.

The government aims to harness 200MW to 400MW from wind energy sources in the next 15 years to 20 years, and has announced the availability of 10 sites in Luzon, seven in the Visayas, and one in Mindanao for potential projects.

The department has also been promoting several financing arrangements available to investors, including several programs of the Development Bank of the Philippines.

The United Nations Development Programme-Global Environment Facility also offers assistance in project preparation and in securing loan guarantees for wind projects.

The Philippine Export-Import Credit Agency likewise provides loan guarantees to selected wind power projects such as the Bangui Bay wind farm.