Listed firm Basic Energy Corporation is eyeing to develop a 155-megawatt onshore wind farm power facility that will straddle sites in San Joaquin and Miag-ao in Iloilo; and also at Hamtic in Antique. The company apprised the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) that it just recently secured the approval of the Department of Energy (DOE) on its wind energy service contract (WESC) application. Based on the project blueprint submitted to the energy department, the planned facility will cover a total land area of interest of approximately 13,932 hectares covering 172 RE (renewable energy) blocks. “With the approval and signing of the WESC, Basic Energy Corporation will commence to deploy its resources for the wind resource assessment campaign to determine the precise wind regime in the said area,” the company stated. It emphasized that the pre-development phase of the project’s implementation can be concluded within a five-year period, as prescribed under the DOE-bestowed service contract. The company added that the preliminary study will have to be carried out by an independent third party. Onshore wind is among the genre of RE developments keenly pursued by various investors in the domestic energy sector, as this underpins the ‘energy transition agenda’ being advanced by the Philippine government. Most of the commercially-operating onshore wind farms are in northern Luzon and Rizal province near Metro Manila; while the wind-endowed sites in Visayas have been those in Aklan and Guimaras. Basic Energy has not specified any definitive implementation timelines, even its plan for off-take (contracting of generated electricity) on the plant’s prospective capacity. It is apparent though that via the Green Energy Auction (GEA) program being administered by the DOE, sponsor-firms in the RE sector could opt for long-term power supply agreements (PSAs) tendered by the State through the RE bidding paradigm.