DoE to make big push for biomass investments

The Department of Energy (DoE) plans to undertake an aggressive campaign to encourage more investments in the local biomass sector, as it expects only P32 billion worth of committed and indicative projects to come in over the next four years.

DoE documents showed that these biomass projects are expected to generate a marginal 276.7 megawatts between now and 2015, with the majority coming on stream by 2014.

No other projects have been committed or indicated by investors over the medium and long term, despite the fact that the country generates substantial volumes of waste residues that can be used as fuel.

These include agricultural waste, energy crops, forest residues and municipal and urban wastes.

According to the DoE, there is an abundant supply of bagasse in Regions 2 (Cagayan Valley), 4 (South Luzon), 6 (Western Visayas) and 7 (Central Visayas). Sugarcane field trash, on the other hand, is produced at a rate of about 11 to 21 tons per hectare, thus providing a considerable energy resource.

Rice hull production in the country is, meanwhile, estimated at 45.2 million tons a year and is mostly generated in the major rice-producing regions in the country namely Regions 2 (Cagayan Valley), 3 (Central Luzon), 4 (South Luzon) and 6 (Western Visayas). Coconut residues are also abundant in Regions 4 (South Luzon), 8 (Eastern Visayas), 9 (Zamboanga Peninsula) and 11 (Davao region).

For animal and municipal wastes, the national average waste generation was estimated at 0.3 kilogram per capita per day or about 8.2 million tons per year. In the urban areas, the range is from 0.50 to 0.70 kg per capita per day.

“Despite the substantial potential, biomass utilization in the country is mostly for non-power applications such as biofuels in the transport sector, fuel wood in the household and commercial sectors and waste residues in agro industries,” the DoE explained.

As such, the DoE’s biomass sector subprogram is geared toward increasing investments in the sector by identifying more potential biomass power projects in the country as soon as the inventory and assessment of the biomass utilization studies have been completed within the year.