54 MW Pililla
Wind Farm

Drive 40 kilometers southeast of Manila toward Pililla, Rizal, and green rolling hills start to appear, some reaching up to 300 meters above sea level. On this site sit 27 wind turbines from Gamesa of Spain, arranged in three clusters. Each turbine stretches up 125 meters, as tall as a 33-story building. In total, these turbines produce 54MW of wind power per year, providing electricity to approximately 66,000 households in Manila.

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Strategic placement and strong wind resources help make the Pililla wind farm a commercial success. It is also a lively tourist destination that helps support the local economy: During Holy Week, an average of 130,000 visitors travel to Pililla, increasing appreciation for renewable energy in the Philippines, and providing opportunities for residents to generate new streams of income.  

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A series of pioneering activities – from an innovative financing structure that helped get Pililla off the ground, to a Visitor’s Center that promotes awareness of the benefits of renewable power – make Pililla a benchmark for future projects.

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Pioneering Local Financing

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Feed-in-Tariff rules presented financing challenges, and to help overcome them, Alternergy encouraged three local banks to form a syndicate to fund the project. The consortium, which consisted of local commercial banks Banco de Oro, Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation, and China Bank, came together to offer $105M in project financing: the first non-recourse wind project financing by an entirely local bank syndicate, and the country’s first non-recourse wind financing for a Feed-in-Tariff project. The formation of the syndicate and the resulting financing structure led the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to award the Pililla project a Sustainable Energy Finance Award. 

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Proximity to Main Power Demand

 

As the first wind farm project in Luzon outside of the Ilocos region, Pililla sits on land that is either owned by Alternergy Wind One Corporation or is leased from the Rizal Provincial Government and from private individuals and corporations. Pililla is interconnected with the distribution grid of Meralco (Manila Electric Company) through a dedicated, point-to-point sub-transmission line, located just 10 kilometers from the main line. 

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The close proximity to the main power load of the Luzon grid allows for low transmission losses and unconstrained dispatch of wind-powered electricity.

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Positive Impact on Pililla, Rizal

 

The power produced by the Pililla wind farm reduces carbon emissions by 73,000 tons per year, but its influence on sustainability goes far beyond its generation capacity. Alternergy partnered with World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to create a first-of-its-kind Visitor’s Center aimed at educating the waves of tourists coming to the site each day. Families, busloads of school children, and visitors from around the region learn about the benefits of wind power through 18 information panels inside the center. The popularity of the wind farm has led to numerous independently created Facebook pages and online groups set up to celebrate its striking scenery and clean-energy benefits.