“For once, we are early—not late—in adopting a sustainable energy technology.”

For offshore wind advocate and renewable energy veteran Alma Roxas-Aguila, that rare positioning captures what is now at stake as the Philippines enters its first dedicated offshore wind auction under Green Energy Auction 5 (GEA-5). After years of studies, policy drafting, and market signaling, offshore wind is no longer just a future promise—it is now being tested against infrastructure, regulation, and execution.

The Department of Energy (DOE) is offering 3,300 megawatts (MW) of offshore wind capacity for delivery between 2028 and 2030, under a milestone-based framework designed to align project development with port readiness, grid studies, and permitting timelines. It is the country’s first competitive auction exclusively for offshore wind.

Energy Secretary Sharon S. Garin earlier described the auction as the sector’s turning point: “This auction pushes offshore wind from potential to reality. With clear rules, milestones, and dedicated infrastructure planning, developers can now move from early studies to bankable projects.”

From hills to open seas

Roxas-Aguila’s perspective on offshore wind was shaped long before the technology entered the Philippine policy conversation. Currently serving as Philippines country head for an international offshore wind developer, Roxas-Aguila helped develop the Pililla Rizal Wind Project, one of the country’s earliest utility-scale wind farms, and has spent years guiding early-stage offshore wind projects through feasibility studies, permitting, and multi-agency coordination with the Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Environment and National Resources (DENR), and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). 

“Being involved there opened my eyes to what renewable energy could do for communities and for the Philippines as a whole,” she said. “Seeing those turbines rise in Pililla made something very clear to me: ‘We need more of this. We need bigger. We need bolder.”

Roxas-Aguila has also participated in offshore wind studies, policy consultations, and international technical exchanges supported by the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, International Finance Corporation, as well as the Danish and British embassies.

Her experience, she said, revealed both the difficulty and the long-term payoff of pioneering energy infrastructure.

“It taught me how pioneering projects feel on the ground—the challenges, the pushback, the breakthroughs, the sleepless nights, and the joy of seeing something you helped build power thousands of Filipino homes, the cleaner and sustainable way,” she said.

Years later, when offshore wind emerged as a possibility in the Philippines, she said the decision to enter the sector felt like returning to the same kind of frontier.

“Offshore wind is the next frontier. And I wanted to contribute to building that frontier from the very beginning,” she said. “It’s not just a job for me. It’s nation-building. It’s a legacy work.”

Why offshore wind now

For Roxas-Aguila, offshore wind’s strategic importance is tied directly to the country’s physical constraints and accelerating power demand.

“Given the scarcity of our land and its potential conflict with other uses such as agriculture, industrial and residential, offshore wind can offer the solution by using the untapped offshore area and making it a renewable energy source, subject to marine and other environmental considerations,” she said. “Scale and quantity-wise, offshore wind provides the fastest way to achieve our RE target in our energy mix.”

But scale comes with complexity. Offshore wind is among the most capital-intensive and infrastructure-dependent power technologies in the world—requiring not just turbines, but ports, specialized vessels, transmission capacity, marine logistics, and multi-agency permitting.

The long pre-development road

At present, most offshore wind projects in the Philippines remain in the technical, environmental, and permitting phase—a stage Roxas-Aguila describes as the most decisive part of the entire project lifecycle.

“It’s long, it’s complicated, and honestly—it’s where 80% of the real work happens,” she said. “Wind studies, seabed surveys, environmental baselines—these are the things that determine whether a project will stand for 25 years or not.”

Under existing rules, offshore wind developers are granted a non-extendible five-year pre-development period before declaring commerciality. With the Revised Omnibus Guidelines issued by the DOE in June 2024, developers may now opt to convert their contracts into Offshore Wind Energy Service Contracts that allow:

• a development period extension of up to two years, and
  
  
• the option to secure a Certificate of Authority, providing up to three additional years to complete feasibility studies and permitting.

“In more mature markets for offshore wind, a typical permitting and development period takes about three to five years and two to three years construction period,” she said. “For new markets such as the Philippines, we expect longer periods as the policies, frameworks, and needed infrastructure simultaneously develop.”

GEA-5 and the first real test

For the offshore wind industry, the issuance of the GEA-5 Notice of Auction on November 25, 2025 represents a critical milestone.

“The developers and projects that will be bid out in this auction will definitely be the ones who will have the potential to be the first batch of offshore wind projects in the country,” Roxas-Aguila said. “The notice of auction for GEA-5 is a notable achievement to date for the industry as this provides the offtake mechanism for offshore wind.”

She added that the outcome of the auction will shape expectations for the sector’s trajectory over the next decade.

“Its result could probably give us an indication as to how the offshore wind industry will be in the next five to ten years,” she said.

Typhoons, grids, and ports

Unlike onshore renewables, offshore wind requires simultaneous solutions across weather resilience, transmission, and marine infrastructure.

“Typhoons? Choose turbines and foundations designed for extreme weather conditions,” Roxas-Aguila said.

On grid integration, she stressed that offshore wind cannot be treated as a simple connection.

“Offshore wind cannot just ‘plug and play,’” she said. “We need to coordinate early and closely with the grid operator to determine the feasibility of connecting the project to the main grid and its respective transmission lines.”

Ports are another structural requirement.

“We have started discussions and building relationships with port owners and operators, the Department of Energy, Philippine Ports Authority, and other international port experts and consultants,” she said.

Jobs, communities, and safeguards

Beyond electricity generation, Roxas-Aguila said offshore wind carries direct economic implications for coastal regions.

“This industry can create thousands of jobs—everything from engineers to welders, from vessel crews to project managers,” she said. “Ports can expand. Local suppliers can grow. Entire coastal economies can improve. And most importantly: energy security in the country.”

Environmental protection, she stressed, must remain central to development.

“You don’t push projects where they don’t belong,” she said. “You study the seabed, the fishery routes, the migratory paths. You work with marine experts. You work with the people who actually live there. Environmental responsibility is non-negotiable.”

Building a Filipino offshore wind workforce

Roxas-Aguila believes the long-term success of offshore wind will depend on how early the country invests in specialized skills.

“Filipinos can become world-class offshore wind professionals,” she said. “We just need access to training—safety certifications, marine engineering, offshore operations, project management.”

She cited international certification systems such as the Global Wind Organization, as well as workforce initiatives supported by the Embassy of Denmark in the Philippines, as emerging platforms for skills development.

“If we invest in Filipino talent early, we can build an entire generation of experts,” she said.

A conservative view of what comes next

On timelines, Roxas-Aguila offered a cautious projection.

“Personally, I see one or two offshore wind projects being built in the next five years, up to 2030,” she said. “After that, there may be another one or two additional offshore wind projects that may be successfully completed by 2035. This is my realistic and conservative view, considering all potential factors and considerations in offshore wind development.”

For all the engineering complexity and policy mechanics, Roxas-Aguila said offshore wind ultimately demands patience and long-term commitment.

“Offshore wind is a long game. It requires vision, patience, and courage,” she said. “But if we commit to it, it can reshape the Philippines—not just our energy system, but our economy and our workforce for decades.”

And for her, the deeper significance remains national in scope.

“Filipinos rising to meet a global industry. Women taking leadership roles. The potential to rewrite our energy story,” she said. “And the possibility that, for once, we are early—not late—in adopting a sustainable energy technology.”

With GEA-5 now in motion, can the Philippines align policy, ports, and grid infrastructure fast enough to deliver its first offshore wind projects before 2030?

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