BALANGA CITY — The provincial government announced Friday that a British banker has presented a proposal to build a 100-megawatt power plant using solid wastes with funding of $500 million.
Vice Gov. Crisanta Garcia said documentation was already going on for the proponent’s desire to set up the plant at the Freeport Area of Bataan in Mariveles town.
“It will be the first such technology converting solid wastes to energy in Bataan,” she said.
Banker David Wood who will fund the project said it will be under the Public, Private Partnership but with almost no cost for the provincial government.
Mar Supnad who introduced the investors to provincial officials said the provincial government will only provide 15 hectares of land as counterpart. He said that funding is ready and once documentation is finished, the proponents wanted the construction to start this coming May.
Wood said the project using state-of-theart Australian technology will be the first in Bataan and the Philippines that will process wastes to energy. “It is green energy to replace coal. The technology will solve environmental problems,” the foreign banker said.
He said that for the first phase of the project of 50MGW, the operation needs 1,500 tons of garbage a day.
If the garbage supply will not be enough, the company will ask farmers to plant Napier grass as fuel for the plant that will provide additional income for the residents, Supnad said.
“It will have a positive effect on the environment for it will produce clean power,” Wood said. He stressed that there will be no more landfill with close to zero harmful emission and a smokeless fuel.
Filipino Ed Rivera who will provide the technology and the machinery said they will strictly comply with the country’s Solid Waste Management Act.
They expressed gratitude to Gov. Albert Garcia and the vice-governor for being accommodating.
Bataan is becoming host to various power plants. A 600-MGW coal power plant is operating in Mariveles. An additional 600-MGW plant is nearing completion in the area. There are plans to build additional coal power plants in the town.
Another 1,200-MGW coal power plant is about to operate in Limay town with a smaller plant already in operation.
A Korean investor recently pledged to put up a 600-MGW thermal power plant at a cost of US$1 billion.
