“We’ve got the POWER" will soon roar as a confident declaration of industry and government collaboration.  

The trailblazing initiative that is already gaining traction among serious investors and industry players is the institutionalization of the Pilipinas Offshore Wind Energy Resource Inc. (POWER), an echo of a formidable force of teamwork being advanced in the deep blue terrains of the energy sector.

Being one of the pioneers of POWER, Inc. Raymund M. Pascual, Country Manager of Bluefloat Energy Philippines, said in an interview that they have decided “to confront the reality of our need to focus our attention on the upgrading and repurposing of ports,” which will serve as a commanding anchor to the emerging billion-dollar offshore wind industry in the Philippines.

Expressing its appreciation of the Philippine government’s attention to the industry, BlueFloat starts with what is obvious to enable Offshore Wind Energy in the Philippines and it is the site near where these farms will be built...industrialization, supply chain and on port repurposing for offshore wind.

The Spanish renewable energy (RE) company focused on developing offshore wind, BlueFloat Energy is taking the lead on firming up groundbreaking industry partnerships that must catalyze investments on warranted port support facilities for offshore wind projects.

Pascual shared that their company already visited at least 15 ports in various parts of Luzon; and based on initial assessment, “nothing is ready now; that’s why part of our role is to enable the industry and provide knowledge transfers… and we’re doing this in synchrony with government – all coordination works are with the Department of Energy (DOE) to be aligned with what Executive Order 21 says.”

Executive Order No. 21, which was issued by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in April this year, is the policy guide and administrative framework that the current administration has enforced for the development of the country’s nascent offshore wind industry.

BlueFloat Energy said it opted to take a key role in developing the support infrastructure for viable rollout of offshore wind farm projects because of its mammoth offshore wind project pipeline of 7.6 gigawatts in the Philippines, which are targeted to reach final investment decisions (FID) by 2027 and prospective commercial operations date (COD) by 2030.

The field work carried out by BlueFloat Energy already covered site visits to ports in Cagayan Valley, Ilocos Norte as well as those in Batangas, Mindoro and also Subic and Bataan, including the Mariveles Port and the Mabini, Batangas - Energy Supply Base (ESB) port facility of state-run Philippine National Oil Company.

Beyond those site visits, Pascual narrated that thoughtful discussions were also carried out with Energy Undersecretaries Rowena Cristina Guevara and Giovanni Carlo Bacordo at the DOE; and also with PNOC President and CEO Oliver Butalid – and the intent of those talks centered on marrying public and private sector interests in concretizing the metamorphosis of the country’s ports into facilities that will then serve as ‘development hubs’ of clean energy installations.

“The role of BlueFloat is important in this whole ecosystem – we feel that we are duty-bound to share our knowledge, why? That’s part and parcel of our being the number one in terms of pipeline – we need to reciprocate the government’s confidence giving us 7.6 GW,” Pascual noted.

He highlighted that “the Philippines has a vision to industrialize and make energy sufficient, so our role is to animate and operationalize that strategy and that vision.”

At this stage, Pascual mentioned that there’s at least a feasible candidate-port in Central Luzon, “but I couldn’t mention the name because it is a private port – it has the best space and best potential replicability and transferable application.”

He reiterated “our role today is to make sure that we enable and finally kickstart the process of study and be openly generous and welcoming that this becomes a collaborative work – that’s why we are doing this with a lot of transparency and a lot of coordination with the DOE, PNOC and we are going to disclose the result of our study. What is very important - and I want to underscore this - the industry, being complex and nascent at this point, requires the active participation and cooperation of developers like us to provide technology, while we would also rely upon the local environment to drive the application.”

Navigating the sophisticated web of port facilities

The mesh of logistical challenges on port developments for the offshore wind industry is certainly a complex terrain for the entire industry to navigate and resolve – especially at the pioneering stage of project installations.

If there is any consolation, according to Walid Oulmane, Head of Ports and Global Industrialization at BlueFloat Energy, the hurdles being experienced by the fledgling offshore wind industry in the Philippines when it comes to port infrastructure is nothing different from the snags hamstringing investments also in other energy markets – be it for the bottom fixed or floating offshore wind farm facilities that are currently under development phases.

“No one is immediately ready for purpose, we need some adaptations – in few ports, just some minor adaptation to make it ready for purpose. But in other ports, we need much more work, that’s why we’re also talking with the authorities which ones are the most adaptive,” he explained.

Oulmane specified the port support facilities for offshore wind are typically developed on various configurations, because these ports will be serving fit-for-purpose paradigms in project developments and operations – including those that are needed for specialized cranes, colossal quayside infrastructure and the requirement for expansive storage areas.

“If we are talking about ports - it’s not one, it will be many ports, at least four. We are not only looking for one, we are looking for one dedicated for the fabrication; another dedicated for the assembly of the floaters; the third one for the turbine integration; and the last one for the O&M (operations and maintenance) services. Ports are needed for many positions for different scopes,” he stressed.

Oulmane expounded that in offshore wind farm developments, “floating project is much more complex in terms of execution; and it means also that much more opportunities for the country in terms of fabrication, in terms of assembly, in terms of local content.”

He qualified there are port facilities warranted to be sited close to the wind farms – primarily those that are required for the assembly of floaters as well as those on turbine integration.

“This one you need very good assessment of the existing ports close to your projects; and then, the second could be the assembly port – you need much more space to assemble the floaters, you need both technologies - concrete and steel - so it means different execution models, different supply chains,” Oulmane pointed out.

On the designation of O&M port facility, the BlueFloat Energy executive cited that “for basic O&M, you can almost use any port,” but for heavy maintenance activities, the required ports are those with high-powered lifting capabilities.

“For heavy maintenance, maybe it could happen once every 10 years. But the normal, the basic day-to-day maintenance, it’s a permanent work for 25 years - you can almost use any port for that. But for heavy O&M – this could mean replacement of blades; we need replacement of cell in wind turbines; big component that need to mobilize the crane or much more resources; so the one to be used for the integration of the turbine could be the one for the heavy maintenance,” he enthused.

And given that the Philippines’ offshore wind potential leans more on floating technology, Oulmane indicated that the ports that shall be initially developed for fixed bottom installations may eventually evolve or upgraded to serve the needs of the more complex floating offshore projects.

On BlueFloat’s propounded development blueprint, Pascual emphasized “while our WESC’s (wind energy service contracts) are all floating, we may propose to the government to  repurpose these ports initially for fixed bottom so it can be utilized immediately by any developer that is ready;  we’ll allow the other developers to use them openly – it will be sharing of resources, because it requires a lot of collaboration so that we can enable our energy transition and energy sufficiency while also providing jobs for our fellow citizens in the process.”

Pascual, who is an Electronics Engineer by profession and had gained solid track record as a key executive in the telecoms, infrastructure and RE industries, opined that with 5G and Industry 5.0, innovations in port assets for offshore wind will also eventually integrate digital transformation that may span through automation with robotics and smart machines, data analytics and the incursion of artificial intelligence (AI) in the core of operations of these facilities.

Addressing funding shockwaves for port repurposing projects

The funding compass for port repurposing projects is still sailing through choppy waters – and there is no concrete business model yet that could be heralded as a ‘true and tested’ formula.

As things stand today, it was noted that there are business models as well as innovative or blended financing models that may turn the tide into the investors’ favor – not just on offshore wind project developments, but also in developing the support infrastructure, primarily for ports.

Pascual asserted that in their proposition to the industry and the government, “we tried to show them what it may entail as a consequent effect if it will be relied upon solely to developers; and what can be the effect if government will be the one to repurpose and upgrade the ports; and what can be had if there’s a collaborative work.”

He added the discussion points are also giving sharp focus on what scope the government shall undertake; and what shall be demarcated as a responsibility for the private sector, “and if we work together, what’s the general effect and economic benefit to the consuming public on the levelized cost of electricity.”

Oulmane, for his part, contended that “before we talk about business model for the ports, the first request that we have, not only in the Philippines but from all the countries:  what are our requirements for the ports? It’s not an easy answer – it’s not a black and white answer to be honest because you have more than 100 technologies, designs in the market.”

He underscored “BlueFloat has a global pipeline of 33GW and 18GW of that are in Asia Pacific, what we’re doing is: we are sharing experiences from other geographies; so we have projects in more than 10 countries - so you can imagine that from Australia to Scotland, Italy, France, Taiwan – we have all the same constraint, how to build the port, how to secure the funding, what will be the business model. And from one country to another, it’s a different experience – it could be 100% investment from the authorities; it could be initial investment from the authorities’ expectation from the developers; or it could be third party investors with specialization on port development – so you can have 2,3 or 4 types of business models.”