Clenergen Philippines has begun the installation of its first 2MW/e gasification biomass power plant on the island of Romblon, Philippines, under the terms of its agreement with National Power Corporation (NPC).

In tandem, the company has signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Romblon University to supply up to 400 acres of land to cultivate Beema Bamboo as the energy crop to provide fuel (wood chips) for the gasification power plant, along with the use of its facilities for nursery and tissue culture production of Beema Bamboo plants to supply surrounding islands with saplings for similar installations. The company is targeting up to 50 similar installations over the next 36 months.

The company said that Romblon Island, with a population of 250,000 people, currently experiences up to eight hours a day of blackouts, due to the acute shortage of electricity.

Due to the fertile soil and abundance of rain, the Philippines offers an ideal location to cultivate Beema Bamboo both for domestic supply and for export as wood pellets to both the Korean and Japanese coal fired power plants, according to the company.

To support the human resource requirements of both the Philippines, as well as its projects in Africa, Clenergen signed a MOA with NPC to re-deploy their human resources of over 1000 qualified process, electrical, transmission, chemical, plantation management, biotechnologists and other senior management employees in order to provide experience personnel to support these projects.

Due to the privatization of the Philippine utility marketplace, NPC have been forced to address the needs of its employees as well as diversify into off-grid renewable electricity power projects with Independent power producers, of which Clenergen is the first company to have signed such an agreement.

Mark Quinn, executive chairman of Clenergen, said: “Romblon Island represents the first of over one fifty similar installations required to support the energy requirements of the 7000 islands that comprise the Philippines.

“Ankur Technology gasifiers can easily be installed within six to eight months and fully operational, using existing power distribution and transmission channels installed for diesel generated electricity.”