Sto. Tomas eyed for waste-to-energy plant

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY -- The city government will put up its own waste-to-energy plant here to address the city’s garbage disposal problem and produce cheap renewable energy that will be infused into the grid.
    Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong said proponents for the energy plant gave up their plans to establish the said facility in nearby Sablan, Benguet because of mixed signals they had been getting from municipal officials.
    He said the local government will be asking project proponents to identify portion of a city-owned property in Sto. Tomas where this plant could be constructed.
    Magalong said the project will be jointly implemented by the proponent, the State-owned Philippine National Oil Company–Renewables Corporation (PNOC-RC) and local government.
    The proponent will reportedly inspect the 139-hectare city-owned property in Sto. Tomas to ascertain site for this facility.
    During the early years of the present administration, it eyed the construction of a waste-to-energy plant within the 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 project.
    A private property in Sablan was earlier identified as 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 project.
    City Administrator Bonifacio dela Pen֮a said construction of the road to the property was expensive and the proponent will have to shoulder the development cost as part of the 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.
    Construction of this plant is seen as one solution that will address cost of hauling city garbage to the sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac which had been the temporary solution to the garbage disposal problem of the city for over a decade now.