GBPC goes biomass

GLOBAL Business Power Corp. (GBPC) is joining the race for Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) incentives, which are guaranteed rates for renewable energy developers.

Company executive vice president Jaime Azurin said the company was finalizing plans for a 40-megawatt (MW) biomass bagasse project in Negros Occidental with partner Roxas Holdings Inc. The project is estimated to cost $2.5 million per MW.

The power station is expected to be operational by September 2017, he said.

“We are in the final stages; by end of this year we will be able to come up formally in our entry into renewables: the first biomass bagasse project that we will do,” Azurin said. “We’re sure that we will be one of the first to be able to touch the biomass 250 MW FIT allocation by September of 2017.”

In May, the country’s largest integrated sugar/ethanol business and the power generation arm of listed firm GT Capital Holdings said they had contracted a Finnish company to design their 40-MW biomass power station.

“We are very careful on this because this is the first big plant that will be built here using bagasse and we are all aware biomass is not as easy as we think it is. The biggest problem is logistics,” Azurin said.

RHI and GBPC will establish a joint venture company to operate the facility in RHI’s Central Azucarera de la Carlota, Inc. in Negros Occidental within two years.