Biomass energy expansion eyed

Published September 19, 2017, 10:00 PM By Mark L. Garcia

http://news.mb.com.ph/2017/09/19/biomass-energy-expansion-eyed/

Bacolod City — Producing renewable energy (RE) from biomass can be considered as a new revenue stream for sugar milling companies in Negros Occidental.

This was the projection of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry as the demand for power in the province is increasing and to also do away with too much solar power plant in the province.

“There are already a lot of solar power plants in Negros and we should find cheaper and efficient sources of renewable energy like biomass fuels,” MBCCI Chief Executive Officer Frank Carbon said yesterday.

Biomass is a type of RE source that comes from organic matter, like plants, that is converted to fuel.

Negros Occidental has been dubbed as the RE capital of the country as different kinds of RE plants were built here, producing about 600 megawatts, which is almost half of what the whole island needs.

However, Carbon said solar power plants in the province are more than enough and more RE sources should flourish like biomass.

He said that with power generation by using biomass could help solve the problem in the sugar industry in the province, adding that some of the milling centrals are already capable of generating electricity on their own but it needs to be bigger for them to export it.

“They generate power using sugarcane bagasse but its supply is too small and a little of it could only be sold,” Carbon said, adding “Some of their generated power were also used in their operations.”

To survive the crisis of this mono-crop industry, they need to extend their operations through power generation, he reiterated, as Negros also needs to be “power sufficient” as the local service sector is growing.

MBCCI also suggested to the government that more studies on solving the power problems in Negros Occidental should be made.

Milling operations are not year-round, making RE power generation unstable also and more investments should enter to address this need, Carbon said.

He suggested that more “grass fuels” should be produced in the province through public and private partnerships to ensure that power will be stable to boost the local economy.

These grass plants can be a material for producing biomass fuels for power generation.

“We vast tracks of lands to plant grass fuels and only the government could provide it. Milling companies could have upgrades to produce more power but sufficient supply is needed,” he explained.