MANILA — The Board of Investments (BOI) has approved a Php 410-million biomass energy project in the northern part of the country.
In a statement Friday, BOI said the biomass plant was a project of Isabela La Suerte Rice Mill Corp. which develops, constructs, and operates the five-megawatt renewable energy facility in Aurora, Isabela.
The operation has began in April, employing 39 personnel.
The biomass plant generates electrical power from combustion using rice husk as fuel. It has boiler efficiency of 79 percent at full load, requiring six tons of rice husk to add 35,640 megawatts (MW) for the Luzon grid.
BOI noted that the location of the project is strategic since the province has rich supply of husk to be utilized as fuel for the biomass plant.
“This project affirms Isabela not only as one of the country’s largest rice producers but also one of the largest provincial hubs for renewable energy,” BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo said.
“The province is in a position to take advantage of all those rice husks left behind after milling and powering up the province and securing the lifeline of industries within the area,” added Rodolfo, who is also a trade undersecretary.
Earlier, the official noted that power sector, particularly renewable energy projects, shared the second largest value of investment approvals in the BOI for the first four months of 2017. Kris Crismundo/PNA-northboundasia.com