Alternat1ve.com - One Alternative Energy Blog

Windpower firm to setup IT Hub

alternat1ve — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 08:30:09 +0000

The Vestas Services Philippines Inc. is scheduled to be inaugurated this evening and will eventually hire 200 local employees by 2011 with an initial start this year of 100 hirees. They currently have 25 employees already in their stable.

The site will support Vestas global operations providing backend support for the operation of 11,500 turbines worldwide. Their tasks include surveillance, service desk and programming. Vestas already has similar facilities in Denmark, Singapore and the US.

The company said that they were considering seven other countries but chose the Philippines because of the skilled talent poll here and the abundant wind energy sources in the country. Vestas has been responsible for supplying the 20 turbines in the wind farms in Ilocos Norte.

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MERALCO encouraged to invest in clean energy

alternat1ve — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:52:03 +0000

Manuel V. Pangilinan, a director of MERALCO and most importantly heads Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC) and telecoms giant PLDT said that he had encouraged MERALCO to look into clean energy power generation so as to improve its bottom line along with providing a full spectrum of energy to consumers.

MPIC and sister firm Pilipino Telephone Corp owns a large block of MERALCO (28.2%) shares which it had acquired through the Lopez group. MERALCO could be considered a crown jewel of the Lopez family that had been owned by them for the longest but until recently has been embroiled in an ownership issue with San Miguel Corp and the Government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

An interesting article can be found here that details the reason for the hostility of the present government of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo that goes all the way back to the time of their parents. True or not, it does add color to the energy sector of the Philippines.

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Hottest Day in Metro Manila Part II

alternat1ve — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:07:13 +0000

Barely into the summer season and a few weeks from announcing the hottest day in the Metro. A new record high for 2010 was set for the hottest day in the capital as Metro Manila registered a 35.5 C temperature reading in the mercury.

According to PAGASA temperatures like these are usually felt around April when the country is in the thick of the summer season. Tuguegarao in Cagayan province meanwhile has already registered a temperature of 36 C.

Update (03/07/2010): New hottest day record listed as 35.8C while Tugegarao hits 37C

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Reed Bank contractor allots $3M for next stage of exploration

alternat1ve — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 05:50:16 +0000

Forum Energy, who owns the service contract (SC 72) of the disputed Oil Rich Reed Bank has allotted $3M for exploring the oil resource in the said area. Forum Energy has 70% ownership of SC 72, while Philex Mining in 2008 acquired 65% ownership of Forum Energy.

Exploration stage is projected to last seven years that will be broken down into 4 phases.

First phase will have an 18 month period with goals to drill one exploratory well or have acquired 250 sq km of 3D seismic data or 2D High resolution seismic data. 2nd Phase will have a duration of 24 months and will generally be further drilling and exploration. If ever there is any significant discovery the service contract stipulates a 25 year duration for oil production.

The Reed Bank is an area west of Palawan and within the Philippines 320 km exclusive economic zone but its ownership however is disputed by the countries of China and Vietnam. Exploration of the Reed Bank has shown that it could contain about 3.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 440 million barrels of oil

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CNG to be available in March

alternat1ve — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 05:03:12 +0000

In the continuing saga of the shortage of CNG for Buses, the operators of CNG buses in Metro Manila accused the Dept of Energy and Shell Philippines of collusion to ensure that the pilot CNG program for buses be declared a failure so that the operators will revert back to diesel.

Sec. Angelo Reyes of the DOE however shot down these allegations and said that Shell will start supplying CNG by the middle of March to CNG daughter station in Mamplasan, Biñan, Laguna.

We understand the situation of the business people involved in the CNG project. Its a project that has a laudable objective in terms of alleviating transportation requirements and addressing environment concerns and we’ve been trying to help them

Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) can be supplied locally because the Philippines has it in abundance and therefore will have no need to import it. That’s why bus operators jumped on the opportunity to import expensive buses from China that can run on CNG in order to save on fuel costs.

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Feb 24, the hottest day of 2010… so far

alternat1ve — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:42:56 +0000

According to PAGASA, yesterday Feb 24 2010 was the hottest day of 2010 in the Philippines wherein the temperature reached 34.5C at around 1:50 PM. However, with it only being February the country could expect still warmer days ahead with the onset of summer.

The country is currently suffering from a dry spell that is affecting water and electricity services of the country. The latter because of the dependence of the country on clean hydro electric power to generate electricity which require water to power it. The dry spell is said to be brought about by the El Nino phenomenon.

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Toyota Tsusho Corp mulling Biofuel venture with Dole Philippines

alternat1ve — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:26:43 +0000

Toyota Tsusho’s North American Region Group-Global Project Planning Development said that they were studying the feasibility of going into jatropha planting for biofuels with commercial farmer, Dole Philippines, that will comprise of 50~200 hectare lots in Davao City and General Santos in Mindanao. Dole will handle the agriculture part of the venture.

Toyota is eyeing to sell the biofuel locally with the surplus to be exported. According to Philippine Agriculture Development and Commercial Corp there is currently a surplus in the production of biodiesel in the Philippines hence allowing the country to export it. Current demand for this year is 169 million liters with 12 biofuel companies in the country producing about 352 million liters of biodiesel.

Dole has been in the Philippines for the longest time already having huge investments in pineapple and banana plantations in Mindanao.

Petroenergy to fund RE Projects through stock offering

alternat1ve — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 06:04:32 +0000

Petroenergy Resources Corp disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) that they would undertake a stock rights offering in order to finance their foray into the emerging renewable energy sector. The company is initially known to be as an oil exploration company with oil prospects in the Philippines and Gabon Africa. With their entry into renewable energy generation they plan to setup a subsidiary for this venture that will have a capitalization of P200 M.

Petronenergy has recently won the geothermal service contract of the Maibarara geothermal field in Mt. Makiling in a recent bidding round with the Department of Energy. Aside from that they already have two wind energy projects in Sual, Pangasinan and Nabas, Aklan.

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