Monday, March 21, 2011

EDC unit corners tax perks for wind power project


Manila Times.net
A UNIT of the Philippines’ biggest geothermal energy producer has secured tax and other perks from the Board of Investments (BOI) for a wind power project in the province of Ilocos Norte.
Lucita Reyes, executive director of the incentives-giving agency, told reporters the BOI approved the registration of Burgos Wind Energy System’s 86-megawatt (MW) wind power plant in the town of Burgos.
The P14.447-billion project was eligible for perks under the 2010 Investment Priorities Plan’s Mandatory List, which covered projects under Republic Act 9513 or the Renewable Energy Act of 2008. The project’s generated power would go to the grid.
Commercial operations would start on December 2014 and 25 people would be hired.
This investment was the largest in terms of project cost among the 36 projects registered with the BOI during the first two months of the year, Reyes said.
At end-February, the BOI registered a 184.7 percent year-on-year increase in pledges.
The Burgos project is EDC’s first wind energy venture awarded BOI incentives, Reyes said. Most of EDC’s BOI-registered projects were geothermal power plants, she said.
A decade ago, EDC registered with the BOI a 40-MW wind power project but the venture as well as the registration were cancelled because the project was deemed unviable at that time, Reyes said.
Five more upcoming EDC projects that were issued service contracts by the Department of Energy are expected to apply for BOI perks, she said. The company’s shares closed at P6.29 apiece on Friday from P6.17 the day before.Ben Arnold O. de Vera

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