Dam host welcomes 2 plants

San Roque Dam in San Manuel town, Pangasinan —ROGER TINGLE/CONTRIBUTOR

SAN MANUEL, PANGASINAN—This eastern Pangasinan town, which hosts the San Roque hydroelectric power plant, will soon be home to two solar power plants that are expected to produce 85 megawatts of electricity.

Vice Mayor Salvador Perez said the town council has endorsed the 40-MW solar photovoltaic project of the Pilipinas Newton Energy Corp.  to generate power from solar resources in Barangay San Bonifacio and San Roque.

The council has also endorsed the 45-MV solar photovoltaic project of the Pilipinas Einstein Energy Corp.  in Barangay Sto. Domingo.

While the town hosts the 345-MW power plant operated by San Roque Power Corp., residents do not get additional benefits and are served, like many towns, by the Pangasinan Electric Cooperative III, Perez said.

The companies undertaking the solar power plants offered to grant discounts to residents of the host communities, he said.

The solar projects are expected to improve energy self-sufficiency and reduce the country’s reliance on imported fuel.

The two companies plan to start construction and commissioning of the plants next year.

While solar power plants are environment-friendly, some residents and farmers of Barangay Sto. Domingo are opposing the projects, saying the plants would dislocate them.

But Perez said the areas where the solar panels would be set up are not productive for farming. —YOLANDA SOTELO