MANILA, Philippines – Inaasahan ng Department of Energy (DOE) ang mahigit 300 megawatts (MW) ng karagdagang power capacity na malilikha sa plano nitong mag-imbita ng mga mamumuhunan para sa waste-to-energy (WTE) projects sa susunod na taon.
Sa press briefing, inanunsyo ni DOE Assistant Secretary Mylene Capongcol na bago matapos ang taon ay maglalabas ang ahensya ng Terms of Reference para sa WTE auction initiative.
“Based on the study that we have undertaken for the highly urbanized cities, we are looking at 335 MW of baseload power plants when we do the auction,” sinabi ni Capongcol.
Plano ng DOE na magsagawa ng WTE auction round sa Enero 2026, na partikular na naka-disenyo ang WTE projects para kumuha ng waste feedstock sa Metro Manila at highly urbanized cities (HUCs) areas.
May target completion date ito na fourth quarter ng 2027.
Batay sa 2024 Solid Waste Generation data ng National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC), maaaring makalikha ang Metro Manila at HUCs sa tinatayang 6.12 million metric tons ng municipal solid wastes na katumbas ng 335 MW base load power capacity.
“We are confident that we will have a successful auction by next year,” ayon kay Capongcol.
Sa kabila nito, sinabi niya na “it is quite expensive to develop WTE.”
“If you are going into thermal combustion, you would need around P350 to P430 million per megawatt and P400 to P440 million per megawatt of anaerobic digestion and combustion. Gasification would cost about P470 million per megawatt,” sinabi pa ng DOE official.
Inilarawan ng DOE ang WTE bilang isang emerging renewable energy technology.
Inaasahan ng ahensya ang WTE development bilang isa sa mga estratehiya ng bansa para tugunan ang solid waste management, magsilbing flood control mitigation, at magbigay ng karagdagang clean energy. RNT/JGC
