August 16 -31, 2016
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY
A5
Canada supports $161 million biomass power
projects in Negros Occidental
The Government of
Canada, the International
Finance Corporation (IFC),
and IFC’s Clean Technology
are investing $161 million in
three biomass power plants
in the Philippine province of
Negros Occidental.
The investment was
announced on August 19. The
project in the Visayas region
of the Philippines is expected
to generate 70 megawatts of
clean renewable energy for
the country.
The power plants are
being built in the towns of
Manapla, San Carlos and La
Carlota.
“We are pleased to
support innovative projects
abroad that help reduce global greenhouse gases. Through
our partnership with the IFC,
the Government of Canada
will deliver funds that will en-
able the growth of renewable
energy while supporting the
creation of green jobs,” said
Catherine McKenna, Canada’s Minister of Environment
and Climate Change.
The facilities will
convert sugarcane waste to
electricity using a low carbon-emitting process called
circulating fluidized bed boiler technology. Before it was
identified as feedstock for
biomass power plants, sugarcane waste was burned in the
fields, a practice that contributed to air pollution.
The three power
plants are expected to qualify
for the biomass feed-in-tariff of the Philippine Energy
Regulatory Commission. The
feed-in-tariff is available to
energy producers with up to
250 megawatts of biomass
generating capacity.
IFC Country Manager, Yuan Xu, said: “Energy is
central to the country’s development, and the Philippines
needs to further diversify and
secure its energy sources.
Converting agricultural waste
to biomass power is a sustainable way of creating economic value while caring for
the environment.”
IFC is a member of
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