The Windmills of Bangui, Ilocos Norte

It is truly an awesome sight.

It looks like a surreal scene from an extra-terrestrial movie.

The Bangui Wind Mills or Wind Farm is composed of 15 wind turbines, each of them soaring high the equivalent of a 23-story building – planted in a row along the shore of Bangui Bay, Bangui, Ilocos Norte.

The first of its kind in Southeast Asia, each wind turbine was built at a cost of US$1.75M. Cheap.

The Bangui Wind Mills were built by the NorthWind Power Development Corporation to take its share in reducing the emission of harmful greenhouse gases (GHGs) causing global warming and to accelerate the rural electrification of the goverment.

At Bangui Bay, wind mostly comes from the South China Sea, headed towards land. To optimize the full benefit of the winds, turbines are installed along the shore facing the sea effectively avoiding wind breaks.

The turbines are arranged in a single row spaced 326 meters apart. The turbines hub height (ground level to center of nacelle – that part holding the blades) is 70 meters high (roughly equivalent to a 23 story building), each blade is 41 meters long (just 9 meters shy of an Olympic-sized pool) giving a rotor diameter of 82 meters and a wind swept area of 5,281 square meters.

Bangui is located way past Laoag City, Ilocos Norte further up north along the Laoag-Cagayan national highway, 5 minutes after the municipality of Burgos.

It was too bad the weather was not as fine as I hoped it would be for taking photos last week when I was there; it was drizzling. No blue skies. Nevertheless, seeing the windmills of your mind for the first time was still an awesome experience.

I don’t know why but there is something about windmills which strikes a cord within me…

Photos taken October 14, 2008.

~ by gerryruiz on 22 October 2008.

Posted in beaches, gerry ruiz, islands, pacific, philippines, photography
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8 Responses to “The Windmills of Bangui, Ilocos Norte”

  1. That’s interesting having windmills along the shore line. We do have windmills here too but somewhat installed in uphill areas.

    Thanks for the beautiful photos. I have seen so many places in the Philippines through your photoblog ….places that I have never seen myself before.

    Marlou

    marlou fuentes said this on 23 October 2008 at 9:44 am | Reply

  2. Is there any hotels in bangui bay windmill areas ? hopefully can email to me

    michael said this on 9 November 2008 at 4:59 pm | Reply

  3. hi michael yes there is you may visit bangui.ning.com to have a full background about the place

    mayo said this on 23 November 2008 at 2:17 pm | Reply

  4. where can we stay in bangui? so we can enjoy the place and the view thanks

    kristine said this on 5 September 2009 at 5:51 pm | Reply

  5. very nice place!! i would love to go there someday… any place in the phil. where there is more like it?? i too am interested in windmills

    jessie said this on 12 September 2009 at 8:20 pm | Reply

  6. Bangui does not have hotels or inns. It does not have even have taxis or regular jeepneys/ buses. I suggest you plan a trip carefully. You list all the possible itineraries in the extreme Northern Ilocos, such as Patapat viaduct, Cape Bojeador, Saud beach in Pagudpod, Bangui windmills. You can visit all these places in one day. Just have your own transport because tricycle drivers’ usual charge is at P500.

    Rhia said this on 5 October 2009 at 11:24 pm | Reply

  7. Hi gerry, nice site. I’m planning to go to Bangui this November. How many minutes/hours is Bangui/ Burgos away from Laoag City?

    Lenin said this on 13 October 2009 at 7:26 am | Reply

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