State-owned Philippine National Oil Company-Renewables Corporation (PNOC-RC) signed a memorandum of understanding with the city of Baguio on the proposed development of a waste-to-energy facility.
The proposed venture is seen to help ease the locality’s waste disposal problems.
PNOC-RC mentioned that Baguio City is currently having “solid waste crisis and is running out of disposal facilities due to its rugged and mountainous location,” worsened by its increasing population and booming tourism activities.
PNOC-RC saw the locality’s problem as an opportunity to process solid wastes into energy.
PNOC-RC President John J. Arenas said that there are already existing waste-to-energy facilities abroad that can be deployed, but have not yet reached commercial installation in the Philippines.
On the planned development, Arenas said that “the government will make sure that it will consider the welfare of the society and the environment,” as to make sure that no civil opposition would take place.
The project will also generate renewable energy from a local source, therefore “security and sustainability of energy supply can be assured,” he added.
Arenas said that the state-owned firm supports the Department of Energy’s (DOE) aim to utilize the potential of waste-to-energy “as one of the solutions for solid waste problem,” adding that there are still limitations when it comes to developing projects like this.
Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan said that this partnership will help “address one of our basic concerns not only in the city of Baguio but including La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, and Tublay.”
The waste-to-energy project in Baguio had been no investment scale and capacity targeted year. Domogan expressed hope on the project, “so other local government units can use this as a model and replicate the same in their respective areas.”