Burgos wind farm has hi-tech climate change tracking station
Lopez-led Energy Development Corp. has collaborated with local and international scientific organizations to establish within EDC’s Burgos wind farm in Ilocos Norte a hi-tech monitoring station to measure in precise terms atmospheric greenhouse gases, mainly carbon gases behind global warming.
Studies indicate that GHGs play a big role in adverse weather patterns such as floods, droughts, as well as more destructive and more frequent typhoons associated with climate change. Thus, measuring the rising GHG is key to managing climate risks.
The scientific facility that opened recently inside the EDC wind farm now forms part of the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON), a global linkup of scientific stations dedicated to the precise measurements of atmospheric GHGs, such as carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4).
Scientists observed that the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean contributes to the warming when temperature is trapped by its water vapor. Notwithstanding the area’s importance, there was no TCCON station to measure GHGs in Southeast Asia, including the Pacific Ocean.
The Burgos TCCON station – the 25th in the world but the only one in Southeast Asia – helps fill the “measuring gap” by serving as primary validation station in Southeast Asia for Japan’s Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite-2 and NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2. Both GOSAT-2 and OCO-2 can sample the globe within a few days to measure global carbon; but these satellites rely on ground stations, such as TCCON, to validate their measurements.
EDC, with First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPH), collaborated with the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES) and Meteorological Research Institute of Japan, the University of Wollongong (UOW) of Australia and the UP Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology to put up the TCCON station within the Burgos wind farm. NIES has agreed to finance the project.
FPH declared last year that the company and its subsidiaries will not build power plants running on coal, a major emitter of CO2. Under the declaration, all FPH companies have committed to a low-carbon and sustainable operation. FPH counts among its subsidiaries First Gen Corp., the country’s leading clean and renewable energy company. One of First Gen’s subsidiaries is EDC, the country’s biggest geothermal energy company.
”We at (FPH) believe that every business has a choice and we chose to go beyond our ‘business fence’ and contribute to the common good for the benefit our environment and the Filipino people. Thus, in 2016 we declared to commit all our businesses to a low-carbon and sustainable operation to keep our employees, the communities and our assets out of harm from climate change,” said FPH chairman and CEO Federico Lopez during the formal launch of the partnership behind the TCCON-Philippines project.
During the partnership meeting, EDC president and COO Richard Tantoco said the government can use analyses derived from TCCON data to validate the Philippine carbon footprint. The footprint will contribute to the world’s aspiration of climate stabilization by 2050 and serve as a guide for Philippine climate actions.
Before establishing the Burgos scientific facility, the TCCON Steering Committee, composed of scientists from 23 countries hosting TCCON stations, shortlisted Burgos and three other possible sites with clean air quality. Eventually they picked Burgos, because of the superior air quality of the EDC wind farm.