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848 trees give way to Burgos wind farm

By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff Reporter

BURGOS, Ilocos Norte—More trees have to fall, to give way to the on-going construction of the largest wind farm in the Philippines, which is targeted for commissioning in the last quarter of this year.

After eight months of full construction work, the Burgos wind project (BWP) of the Lopez-led Energy Development Corporation (EDC) in Ilocos Norte has started installation work and transportation of huge wind turbines in the area following grounds excavation and backfilling operations along the sprawling 600-hectare coastal and mountainous areas covering Brgys. Saoait, Poblacion and Nagsurot here. 

“For any kind of development, some things have to be sacrificed,” said provincial environment and natural resources officer Juan delos Reyes in allowing the cutting of 848 trees and earth balling of 1,944 tree saplings more to make way for the 87-MW Burgos wind farm .

To date, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has granted at least two special cutting permits to EDC for the cutting of these towering trees covering several barangays of Burgos town where the large scale Vestas V90-3.0MW wind turbines and ancillary plant will be erected.

EDC’s special cutting permit no. 2013-04 and 2013-05 covers the cutting of 848 trees. About 732 of these have already been felled. 

Early this month, Reman Chua, project manager of the BWP has requested for the extension of the permit as more than 100 trees included in the inventory have yet to be cut under the special cutting permit.

According to Chua’s letter, the request for extension was due to a delay in meeting the scheduled cutting activity because workers had a hard time passing through the slope and stony formation surrounding these trees while mitigating soil erosion.

Once operational, the BWP is expected to generate about 233GWh of electricity a year, enough to power more than a million households and augment the Luzon grid’s dependable capacity.

In the next ten years, the Luzon grid is expected to be in need of additional 4,200MW.

Aside from the wind farm, the project also includes 1,115kV transmission line connecting the wind farm from the Burgos substation to the Laoag substation of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, as well as the expansion of the switchyard/substations.

The BWP broke ground on April 17 last year and started the major civil works of constructing at least 29 large footings with a volume of approximately 500 cu. M per footing foundation.


First Balfour signed a P2.4 billion deal with Vestas Wind Systems of Denmark, the world’s largest wind manufacturer for the civil works of the 87 MW wind power farm. It is expected to be completed in October 2014.

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