Bangui Windmills, Ilocos Norte-Jan 29, 2010

I had been to Ilocos Norte several times in the past, but I usually just stay within the area of Laoag and surrounding towns. On this weekend, I flew in at the request of the Computer Science Department of the Mariano Marcos State University to give an IT Career Talk.

After the talk, I had myself dropped off at Pagudpud for an overnight R&R before returning to Manila the next day. En route to Pagudpud, my hosts from MMSU asked if I would like to see the Bangui Windmills. Totally out of my plan for the day, I said sure. Little did I know that it was actually right before one gets to Pagudpud.

View Bangui Windmills, Bangui, Ilocos Norte in a larger map

The Bangui Windmills are located in Bangui, Ilocos Norte, Philippines. The windmills, officially referred to as the NorthWind Bangui Bay Project, were a project by the NorthWind Development Corporation as a practice renewable energy sources and to help reduce the greenhouse gases that cause global warming. The project is the first “Wind Farm” in the Philippines consisting of wind turbines on-shore facing the South China Sea and considered to be the biggest in Southeast Asia. The project sells electricity to the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative (INEC) and provides 40% of the power requirements of Ilocos Norte via Transco Laoag
…

Phase I of the project erected 15 wind turbines spaced 236 meters apart on-shore. This was inaugurated on June 18, 2005 and attended by Former First Lady Imelda Marcos, Governor Bongbong Marcos, Former DOE Secretary Vincent Perez, Undersecretary Peter Abaya and Dr. Robert Yap, Jesuit priest and Project Director of CD4CDM project of klima, who also conducted the invocation and blessing of the wind turbines.

. – WikiPilipinas

All I could say is that the massive wind turbines were quite a sight to behold. Anyone visiting the north MUST drop by the Windmills.

Here’s a short video I took while standing underneath one of the massive sets of blades. You can hear the wind as the blades rotate.

Here are some miscellaneous pictures as I wandered the area…

During the half hour or so that we were there bus loads of people would come… and go…

I’ll say it again. A sight to behold. Simply AWESOME!

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