Phinma-led Trans-Asia Oil and Energy Development Corp. has shelved plans to invest in a venture that will look into the feasibility of a “heat waste project” in the Philippines, as it intends to focus more on its renewable energy projects this year.
In a text message to reporters, Trans-Asia Oil president Francisco Viray explained that this development came about as the company “had reordered [its] priorities” for 2012.
More specifically, Trans-Asia is eyeing to give more focus on its wind project, following the issuance of the much-awaited feed-in-tariff rates late last month.
Viray said in an earlier interview that they would be pushing through with the P6.5-billion 54-megawatt Guimaras wind farm this year, after having delayed the project for several years due to the absence of feed-in-tariff rates. The company, he had added, would start mobilizing within the year activities related to the construction of the wind farm.
As of end-December 2011, Trans-Asia Oil has a total of 12 wind service contracts, which still covered a sizeable portfolio with an estimated 261 MW in combined capacity. A portfolio of this capacity may require investments of roughly $650 million, based on the general rule that at least $2.5 million would be needed to produce of megawatt of wind power.
Meanwhile, in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday, Trans-Asia Oil reported that it has already notified Geopower Energy Ltd. and Thor Energy PH Inc. that it was terminating its participation in the memorandum of agreement it signed on July 25, 2011, regarding a waste heat project development in the country. The termination will take effect 45 days from August 16.
To recall, Trans-Asia had signed the agreement last year with Geopower Energy and Thor Energy “for joint assessment of opportunities for commercialization of energy generated by waste heat resources in the Philippines.”
Waste heat resources refer to the heat generated from industrial processes. When recovered, the waste heat can be converted into electricity using large-scale steam turbines.
If the venture has been deemed feasible, the group is looking at possibly putting up a power plant that would run on waste heat. Among the prospective sites identified by the group included industrial smelters, cement and glass manufacturing plants, power stations and geothermal fields.