By Alena Mae S. Flores
Asea One Power Corp., a renewable energy company, plans to put up biomass power plants with a combined output of 60 megawatts to address the country’s growing demand for electricity.
Ernesto Tan, ASEA One Power senior vice president and chief finance officer, told reporters over the weekend the company would start building an initial 12-MW biomass power project in Aklan province costing an estimated $37 million.
“One good thing about biomass is it is the only renewable that is baseload [one that can run 24 hours, seven days a week] and of higher efficiency, compared with solar and wind,” Tan said.
Tan, however, said the availability of feedstock was a concern. ASEA One will tap agricultural residues such as wood chips, rice husks and rice straws as feedstock for the plant.
“The source and availability of feedstock is a primary concern [for biomass projects] anywhere in the Philippines,” he said.
ASEA One has signed up over 60 long-term exclusive sales contracts with rice millers and farmers in Aklan.
Tan said the company had completed the predevelopment stage for the Aklan project and sought a commerciality certificate from the Energy Department to avail of the feed-in tariff for biomass at P5.90 per kilowatt-hour.
“DoE is still validating, reviewing for the issuance of confirmation of commerciality, which will serve as notice to proceed,” Tan said, as he expressed optimism the department would give the go-signal within the year. source
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