One of Asia's most promising floating wind markets risks making a critical mistake

The Philippines' Department of Energy (DoE) has suspended GEA-5, the country's first dedicated offshore wind auction.

Officials call it a recalibration, not a cancellation. Either way, it shows how hard it is to design an auction for an industry that doesn't yet exist here. Floating wind was already excluded from GEA-5 [the fifth auction under the Philippines' renewable auction programme].

It will stay absent from GEA-6 to GEA-9, delaying any dedicated auction until 2028 at the earliest. Can the Philippines really afford to wait until 2028 to launch the floating wind auction when a significant share of the country’s approximately 160GW of technical offshore wind potential is in deeper waters?

World Bank's 2022 report named the Philippines one of the most promising offshore wind markets in the Asia-Pacific region. It proved right: more than 90 projects won service contracts, and the industry was excited.

I met a DoE delegation in October 2024, when officials promised to launch the long-awaited offshore wind auction in 2025. That slipped to 2026, only two years before the next presidential election. People began to doubt whether the President Marcos Jr. could see a single offshore wind turbine spinning before the end of his term. When the 3.3GW auction finally launched, nine developers passed the initial qualification review.

While the industry was waiting on the final bidder list, DoE hit the brakes.

DOE is reassessing core requirements around project timeline and transmission capacity, port availability, and onshore infrastructure readiness. The pause is disappointing. But the aim is to reduce the risk of awarded projects that later can’t deliver.

While we wait for updates, another problem in the market can't be ignored: floating wind. More than 90% of the Philippines' offshore wind resource sits in deep water. Yet under the current schedule, the DoE won't give floating wind a chance until at least 2028.

A missed opportunity

In that context, the absence of a near-term floating wind pathway is a missed opportunity.

Auction design cannot be treated as a one-size-fits-all exercise across fixed bottom and floating wind technologies. The two differ in delivery model, supply chain configuration, and risk allocation. Floating wind is not a scaled-up version of fixed bottom projects. It shifts value into local supply chains, port infrastructure, and logistics, while introducing new technical challenges, interface requirements, and finance and insurance structures.

By 2028, Philippines risks entering scale deployment without having validated the basics: pricing, contract structure, grid integration, and infrastructure constraints. What happened to fixed bottom – delay, pause and revise – could easily happen again.

France provides a useful reference. The country established a clear roadmap by launching floating wind pilot projects in 2015. Today, with all three pilot projects fully commissioned, France has built the confidence and experience needed to progress to commercial-scale deployment, and expects to tender a combined 5GW of floating offshore wind capacity in the fall.

The same logic can apply to the Philippines, where a 100-300MW floating pilot included in GEA-6 would provide developers, lenders, regulators, and the transmission planner the opportunity to pressure-test transmission capacity, port logistics, and delivery timelines, validate engineering under Philippine typhoon conditions, and establishing an initial price benchmark for floating technology.

There are early signs of readiness. Some developers have conducted site surveys, secured service contracts, obtained Environment Impact Assessments, gathered wind resource data, and engaged local stakeholders.

GEA-6 is expected to auction onshore wind and floating solar capacity. Adding a floating wind pilot to that framework would give developers the clarity they need to move forward and let DoE start mobilising the planning and investment needed to unlock its floating wind potential.

This floating pilot can run on its own timeline giving developers and regulators more time to get it right. As people always say, better early than late.

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