Ecija to host another solar plant in bid for green power

SAN JOSE CITY—This city in the agricultural province of Nueva Ecija is harnessing the power of the sun to provide an alternative energy source to its businesses and households.

On Tuesday, local officials and businessmen led groundbreaking rites for the 10megawatt Sto. Niño Photovoltaic Power Generation Plant on a 17-hectare area in Barangay Sto. Niño III.

The plant, which is set to operate in March, is the fourth alternative power source to rise in Nueva Ecija after biomass plants in this city, in nearby Science City of Muñoz and in Talavera town, which are all fueled by rice husks.

Businessman Mario Salvador, chair of V-MARS Solar Energy Corp.(VMSEC), said the Sto. Niño plant would address the shortage of electricity in the province without environmental hazards posed by traditional coal-fired and fossil fuel-dependent plants.

The project was conceptualized for more than five years by a group called Altergreen, a company registered with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) that has been studying the feasibility of tapping different renewable energy sources.

Salvador said his firm, after the construction of the Sto. Niño plant, would develop another 50-MW biomass plant in Nueva Ecija’s northern town of Lupao.

“Nueva Ecija is known for being the rice granary of the country and it will soon be known as a major source of renewable energy,” he said.

Salvador, a former vice mayor of this city who is in palay trading and milling, called on other businessmen and investors to rally behind the call to help tap renewable sources of energy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Energy Undersecretary Mario Marasigan, head of the Renewable Energy Management Bureau of the Department of Energy, said the location of the solar power plant here, which is near mountain ranges, also suits wind energy production.

Marasigan, who attended the groundbreaking rites for the solar power plant, said a facility that will study and measure wind velocity in the eastern part of the province has been put up in Pantabangan town. It will determine the potentials of Nueva Ecija for wind-generated electricity.

“Our country’s commitment to the recent Conference of Parties (this year’s United Nations-sponsored climate change conference) in France is to reduce our greenhouse gas emission by 70 percent. Your efforts here in tapping renewable energy for power generation are certainly helping our government in subscribing to that commitment,” he said.

In March, the country’s first power plant that runs on rice husks (locally called ipa) started operating here.