Baguio to host waste to energy plant
The city will put up its own waste-to-energy plant to help address the city’s garbage disposal problem and ensure the production of quality and cheap renewable energy that will be infused into the grid.
Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong disclosed that proponents for the put up of the waste-to-energy plant have already gave up their plans to establish the said facility in nearby Sablan town because of the alleged mixed signals they had been getting from the municipal officials.
He reported that the local government will be asking the proponents of the project the option to identify the feasible portion of the city-owned property in Sto. Tomas where this plant could be constructed.
The local chief executive said the project will be jointly implemented by the proponent, the State-owned Philippine National Oil Company–Renewables Corporation (PNOC-RC) and the local government.
According to him, the proponent will be inspecting the 139-hectare city-owned property in Sto. Tomas to ascertain the site for this facility.
During the early years of the present administration, it eyed the construction of a waste-to-energy plant within a portion of this property ceded by the agriculture department to the city but there were some questions on the feasibility of the land and the area where the facility can be constructed that compelled the proponent and the city to look for other areas for the realization of the project.
Incidentally, a private property in Sablan town was previously identified as a possible site for the plant but the mixed signals from municipal officials on the status of the project caused the city government to reconsider and offer its property in Sto. Tomas for the realization of the renewable energy project.
However, City Administrator Bonifacio dela Pen֮a revealed that the construction of the road network leading to the property is prohibitive and the proponent will have to shoulder the development cost as part of the implementation of the long overdue renewable energy project.
The Sobrepen֮a-owned Metro Global Renewable Corporation is one of the proponents for this 10-megawatt waste-to-energy plant that is capable of converting at least 10 tons of the generated waste into renewable energy.
The put up of this plant is seen as one of the ultimate solutions that will effectively address the cost of continuously hauling city garbage to the nearest sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac which had been the temporary solution to the garbage disposal problem of the city for over a decade now. – Dexter A. See, 14.Sept.2021
