THE North Negros BioPower Inc. will unveil its 25-megawatt (MW) biomass power plant in Manapla town tomorrow, November 8, a project seen to create more than 3,000 jobs for Negrenses.
The company, in a statement, Monday said the power plant situated on a 300,000-square meter area at Hacienda Bariw in Barangay Sta. Teresa forms part of a package of three sister plants.
The two other biomass power plants include the 25-MW South Negros BioPower in La Carlota City and 20-MW San Carlos BioPower in San Carlos City.
Both projects are now near completion and up for operations next year.
The three biomass projects in Negros Occidental are under ThomasLloyd Group, as major investor, along with three solar projects already operating in the province.
These are the 48 MW solar farm in Manapla, 45 MW in San Carlos City, and 32 MW in La Carlota City.
The firm said the biomass project in Manapla is expected to generate 185-million kilowatt hours (kWh) of electricity in a year using biofuels such as sugarcane trash and woody energy plants.
The completion target for the construction is 2018. Once completed, it is seen to create 675 new jobs at the power plant on top of another 2,500 in the agriculture sector.
Aside from more than 3,000 additional employment opportunities, “it will also provide electricity to some 265,000 people,” the firm added.
The groundbreaking rites will be attended by Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr., city officials, representatives of Thomas Llyod Group and other investors from Germany, France, Czech Republic, among others.
Thoma sLloyd is a leading global investment banking and investment management group solely dedicated to the renewable energy sector in Asia.
With headquarters based at Zurich in Switzerland, the company also has ventures in 13 countries in North America, Europe and Asia.