Geothermal power producer Energy Development Corp. said Wednesday subsidiary BacMan Geothermal Inc. broke ground on Wednesday to start the construction of the P7-billion, 29-megawatt Palayan Binary Power Plant in Manito, Albay.
The project will provide additional supply of clean, reliable, stable power to the country by December next year.
“This project is our number 1 additional contribution to that much-needed baseload clean, reliable RE that fully supports the DOE’s intent of providing adequate, continuous and economic supply of energy to our country,” said EDC president and chief operating officer Richard Tantoco during the groundbreaking ceremony streamed live via Zoom.
He said the Palayan Binary Project would be EDC’s contribution to the country’s target of reducing carbon emissions to 75 percent by 2030. It is expected to help the Philippines avoid 72,200 tons of carbon emissions each year.
“That’s 29-MW of additional clean, renewable, stable power for electric cooperatives, distribution utilities as well as businesses that aim to lower their carbon emissions or even aspire to become carbon-neutral,” Tantoco said.
“And for these reasons, we strive to make sure that this P7-billion investment will be able to meet our target commissioning month for this Bacman expansion project by the end of 2022, amidst the pandemic,” he said.
The PBPP project will expand EDC’s 130-MW Bacon-Manito geothermal facility and will generate 215.8 GWh of clean power. It was awarded a subsidy from Japan as part of the Joint Credit Mechanism.
The low-carbon project is expected to reduce the country’s carbon emissions by around 72,200 tons each year as it helps Japan reach its own CO2 reduction goals.
The project will use the waste heat from the 110-MW Bacman-1 geothermal power plant to generate additional energy without the need for additional drilling. Heat from brine, which is usually produced from the wet steam operations, will be used to generate electricity by the new power plant before re-injecting back to the reservoir.
It also is expected to boost the local economy with 600 jobs for the community.
The PBPP is one of EDC’s projects in the pipeline that are critical to achieving the company’s revitalized mission of forging collaborative pathways for a decarbonized and regenerative future.