$500M waste-to-energy power plant eyed in Bataan

BALANGA CITY — A group of businessmen from the United Kingdom is scouting for a site here to build a US$500-million waste-to-energy power plant, local officials said.

David Wood, a British banker, met with Bataan Vice Gov. Cris Garcia on Friday to discuss the proposal, which will not cost the provincial government a single centavo.

The only counterpart of the Bataan government is to offer land to host the 100-megawatt power plant, Wood said.

Wood said the plant would need 1,500 tons of garbage a day as feedstock. The plant may also contract waste supply from neighboring Central Luzon provinces and even Metro Manila.

The waste-to-energy power plant will adopt an Australian technology, which is reputed to be operating with net-zero emission compared to other technologies.

Wood said under this scheme, the waste that would go to the landfill is converted to energy “thereby reducing carbon dioxide emission.”

Last month, a joint Korean-Japanese investor signed a memorandum of understanding with the provincial government of Bataan to put up a US$1 billion 600-megawatt thermal power plant.