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Thursday December 27, 2018
Bangui is a coastal municipality in Ilocos Norte, known for its dramatic coastal scenery and powerful wind currents coming off the West Philippine Sea.
Bangui is recognized particularly for its iconic windmills, officially known as the Northwind Bangui Bay Project, a pioneering renewable energy facility located along the town’s western shoreline.
The Bangui wind farm is situated some 60 kilometers north of the provincial capital in Laoag. It is situated around 20km northeast of Burgos, from where we left off.
Travel time by trike from Cape Bojeador took us about 30 minutes, moving at a relaxed speed.
I must admit that this trip to Bangui turned out to be a disappointment, a glitch in the travel plan, so to speak.
I would have wanted to walk along the shoreline, strolling by the coast of Bangui Bay right beneath the towering turbines, to fully appreciate their size while listening to the rhythmic hum of the blades.
Sadly, my driver told me at the last minute that his trike had an issue and is unable to navigate gravel or sandy paths.
And worse, walking from the highway was not feasible either, as the shoreline is about 1.5-2 kilometers away, and would take around 20-30 minutes to walk under the sun, along an open, unpaved road with no shade.
So left with no other choice but to document the wind farm in any way possible, off we proceeded to the designated viewpoint to capture whatever I could of this initiative, even from a distance.
And this is how the windmills look from the view deck.
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| The Bangui wind farm is recognized as the first power-generating wind farm in Southeast Asia. |
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| The initial setup featured 20 Vestas V82 turbines, each standing 70 meters high with 41-meter blades. A subsequent phase added 6 larger Siemens turbines. |
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| The turbines are meticulously arranged in a single, graceful arc stretching across a 9-kilometer shoreline. |
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| The system supplies roughly 40-50% of Ilocos Norte’s electricity, lowering local reliance on imported fossil fuels. |
A bit disheartened that things did not turn out as planned, I hesitantly chose to just move on to the next location on my itinerary. At about 1:07pm, we set off for Saud Beach in Pagudpud.
To ease my mind, I just snapped a few more photos while on the way. These pictures were taken from the Maharlika Highway as we left Bangui.
In hindsight, I should have just hired a separate motorbike at the Bangui Windmills junction, to take me down the access road.
Anyway, this incident has at least given me one reason to come back to Ilocos when given the chance.
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