Cebu is progressing exponentially over the years. With limited land resources in Metro Manila key areas such as BGC and Makati CBD, Cebu presents more room to grow and is emerging as an attractive place for talent pooling, vigorous tourism, infrastructure development, and a thriving business environment. Both the public and private entities are preparing added infrastructure for the investments in these sectors including the new Mactan Cebu International Terminal 2 Building with 8M passenger capacity per year, the 3rd bridge link between Mactan and Cebu City to ease traffic within Cebu City and provide easier access to Cordova, and the Bus Rail Transit (BRT) system for fast, convenient, and affordable commutes. As currently the fastest growing Central Business District in the Philippines, it’s deemed necessary for this Island and the Central Visayas region to create strategies to look for new, cheaper, steady and sustainable Power sources in the next 5 to 10 years.


Oil and Natural Gas in Southern Cebu
In the first quarter of 2018, Department of Energy (DOE) declared the Alegria Oil Field in Southern Cebu to have commercial quantities of natural gas and oil resources. Exploration and drilling activities on the oil field started in 2009. An estimated 27.93 million barrels of oil and 9.42 billion cubic feet of Natural Gas reserves were found. The series of initial testing estimated that the natural gas and oil production of the field may last until 2037. It’s a hint that Cebu and nearby locations within the archipelago could provide these Power resources, the discovery of oil accumulation in the adjacent hydrocarbon traps within the Alegria underground area is a proof.

Solar Farm in Negros Island, SEA’s biggest
A demonstration of PH’s ability to advance world-class renewable energy projects is the 132.5-megawatt solar farm in Cadiz City where it uses Solar panels designed to absorb the rays of the sun then convert them into electricity, opened in first half of 2016. Considered to be the biggest in Southeast Asia and 7th largest in the world. The 10th fully functional solar power plant in the PH has the power production capacity of 280-MW addressing the power shortage problem in the Island. Plans of putting up additional solar farms in strategic locations in the Island is in the timetable.

Wind Farm in North Ilocos, also SEA’s largest
Different location, different resources. In late 2014, a 150 megawatts Wind Project in Burgos had been commissioned, a renewable energy project that uses Wind turbines. The Wind Farm is the largest wind power project in Southeast Asia consists of 50 wind turbines with individuals capacity of 3 MW generating electricity to the Luzon Grid. The Burgos Wind Farm is a recipient of the 2015 Asia Power Engineering International Best Renewable Energy Project.

How far are we in achieving Energy Independence?
The constant effort and more push on this type of explorations is essential to sustain our development, which in effect help the nation to achieve energy independence. Let’s support the research for solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, biomass, oil and new methods of power generation project in the region this to keep up with the progress. Cebu and the nearby Islands continues to be the next big travel spot to explore for business and ventures. Our evolving metropolis shall be complemented with a booming energy industry. How far we are from attaining it? It depends on how we are doing today.