Comparative Life Cycle CO2 and Particulate Matter

Emissions of Electricity from Wind Farms and the

Grid in the Philippines
Mili-Ann M. Tamayao Louis Angelo Danao
Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Department of Mechanical Engineering
Research Energy Engineering Program
Energy Engineering Program University of the Philippines - Diliman
University of the Philippines - Diliman Quezon City, Philippines
Quezon City, Philippines louisdanao@coe.upd.edu.ph
mmtamayao3@up.edu.ph

Alvin Palanca Virginia J. Soriano

Energy Engineering Program Department of Industrial Engineering
University of the Philippines - Diliman Environmental Engineering Program
Quezon City, Philippines University of the Philippines - Diliman
alvingarciapalanca@gmail.com Quezon City, Philippines
ginasoriano@gmail.com

Abstract—The Philippines has the highest installed wind capacity in Southeast Asia, with installed capacity of 393.90 MW and about
748, 414 MWh contribution to Philippine electricity generation in 2015. These numbers are expected to increase with 251 MW
commissioned projects in the pipeline. Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) rate for wind is currently PhP 7.49/kWh, which is lower that the first
approved rate of PhP 8.53/kWh in 2014. The FIT rate decreased because the country reached its target of 200MW a year after the first
FIT rate was approved. Nonetheless, questions still arise regarding the benefits that wind energy bring to the country especially with
the collection of the FIT allowance that everybody pays. The main motivations for the wider adoption of renewable energy include
mitigation of health burdens and climate impacts related to fossil-fuel combustion. This study provides a comparative life cycle analysis
of the CO2 and particulate matter emissions for electricity generated from wind farms and weighted-average electricity from the Luzon
Grid in the Philippines. Life cycle stages for wind farm analysis include raw material extraction to decommissioning. A functional unit
of 1 kWh is used and the process-based LCA approach is employed. The life cycle inventory was built using a mix of Philippine wind
farm technology and production data, Philippine weather data and emission factors from published works. On one hand, only direct
emissions for fossil based technologies including coal, natural gas, and oil were analyzed (i.e., emissions form combustion of fossil fuel
during power generation). This means that emission estimates for fossil based technologies are underestimated in this study.
Nonetheless, results show that for each kWh of wind energy integration, there is an estimated reduction of about 592 g CO2 and 4.9 kg
particulate matter emissions. Given the current capacity wind farms in Ilocos Norte, Philippines, these numbers translate to about 5.85
M tons and 52.7 M tons of avoided CO2 and particulate matter emissions, respectively, over 20 years of operation can be achieved, given
2014 Luzon grid mix.

Index Terms—life cycle analysis, wind energy, CO2, particulate matter. (key words)