Finally, a clean energy for Zamboanga City

Zamboanga City Mayor Beng Climaco and Jean-Philippe Henry, CEO of Ecoglobal Inc. and other officials following a meeting at City Hall. (Local Government Photo)

ZAMBOANGA CITY – A 300-megawatt solar energy plant is expected to rise in Zamboanga City in southern Philippines in what local officials said would be the largest in Southeast Asia.

Mayor Beng Climaco on Thursday said a group of French and Filipino investors that is part of Ecoglobal Incorporated will begin construction of the power plant this month after meeting with the business group headed by Jean-Philippe Henry.

Henry, the Chief Executive Officer of Ecoglobal Incorporated, said they picked Zamboanga to be the hub of the Philippines’ first ever solar energy plant because of the city’s huge potentials. He said the solar energy plant will have a power generation capacity of up to 300 megawatts at its peak.

Climaco – who is a strong advocate of renewable energy - said the solar power plant would be put up at the Zamboanga City Freeport and Economic Zone in the village of Talisayan.

“Construction of the solar power facility is expected to begin in a week’s time of two and the target date for completion is on or before March 2016,” she said following a meeting with Henry’s group.

During the meeting, Climaco said they discussed and finalized the multimillion solar power farm investments in a bid to end the worsening power outages in Zamboanga that has affected the local economy.

She said Ecoglobal Incorporated will finance, manage and operate the solar power plant.

Henry said the solar power plant will start with 30 megawatts and gradually increase this to 100 megawatts and furthermore triple this with the combination of wind energy. He said they have conducted wind mapping and it is more than enough source of clean energy for Zamboanga.

Aside from solar energy, Ecoglobal Incorporates also offers the following services - Battery Recycling, Waste to Energy Plant, Bamboo Eco-Wastewater Treatment, Air Quality and Climate Change, Mobile Solar Energy, Potable Water Generator and Vegetal Building Blocks, among others.

Ecoglobal Incorporated said solar is the simplest form of alternative energy and is a mature and proven technology. Solar electric products convert the sun’s energy into electricity.

Solar panels are made using photovoltaic cells, which convert sunlight into direct current (DC) electricity and then passed this through an inverter which converts it into alternating current electricity.

It said from small community-based solar initiatives to major solar projects, Ecoglobal designs, installs and maintains off-grid and tied-grid solar photovoltaic farms and even hybrid power system solutions using a combination of renewable energies such as solar, wind, fuel cells to become an alternative to fuel power generators.

No to Dirty Coal-Fired Power Plant

Local residents have been protesting the proposed coal-fired power plant by Conal Holdings’ San Ramon Power Incorporated in Zamboanga City due to carbon dioxide emissions and pollutions it would bring here.

Conal Holdings has signed a memorandum of agreement with the Zamboanga City Freeport and Economic Zone for the fossil fuel power station. It was also granted a so-called “no-objection” resolution from the Zamboanga City Council even without prior public consultations, although a few council members have rejected the project because of pollution and its effect to the environment.

Pro-environment groups said coal-fired power plants are the single largest stationary source of pollution in any country. The toxins these coal fired power plants produce severely damage both human health and the environment and contribute to a reduced quality of life.

Coal-fired power plants are responsible for release over 85% of total global carbon dioxide emissions, a prime contributor to global warming. Emissions from these power plants contain tens of dozens of toxic chemicals and the pollution they release every day are a major threat to human health and environment.

Coal-fired units produce electricity by burning coal in a boiler to heat water to produce steam. The steam, at tremendous pressure, flows into a turbine, which spins a generator to produce electricity. The steam is cooled, condensed back into water, and returned to the boiler to start the process over. But environmentalists say the coal-fired power plants will pollute the air and contribute to global warming.

“Coal is the dirtiest fossil fuel and a main driver of climate change. There are hundreds of examples around the world where communities around coal plants suffer the impacts of environmental damage and health problems,” said Greenpeace Southeast Asia campaigner, Amalie Obusan.

Zamboanga’s daily power consumption is about 85 megawatts and the local electric cooperative gets a little over half of its total requirements from the National Power Corporation. And now is suffering from daily power outages lasting as long as 8 hours. (Mindanao Examiner)

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