Rizal dumpsite to host P1.5-B power plant

Montalban Methane Power Corp. (MMPC) will put up a P1.5-billion power facility inside the closed sanitary landfill in Rodriguez, Rizal.

The plant will sell its initial power output of two megawatts (MW) to the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

Within the next five years, the company said it will increase the capacity of the power plant to 15 MW per year.

To sustain the waste-to-energy project, the Rodriguez landfill currently hosts 1,500 tons of garbage a day. However, once this amount is increased to 2,500 tons of garbage it would be entirely possible to extend the project duration to 10 years.

Operating under this scheme, the MMPC project is seen mainly as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project.

The CDM, an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol, which was made in response to the international conventions on global warming, allows countries which are heavy polluters to invest in carbon-emission-reducing projects in countries that pollute less.

This is done through the trading of certified emission reductions (CERs) or carbon credits, where one CER is equivalent to an emission reduction of one ton of carbon dioxide. 

The Kyoto Protocol’s goal is to meet the quota for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2012.

Since the MMPC project is designed to prevent methane gas from escaping into the atmosphere, while also producing power without using up non-renewable energies, it is expected to qualify as a CDM project.

A relatively potent greenhouse gas, methane’s presence in the atmosphere largely contributes to global warming. It is 21 percent more potent as an environmental pollutant than carbon dioxide.

Once the project is registered, it will be the country’s first, as well as the fourth largest landfill-gas-to-energy CDM project in the world. It is expected to earn at least 500,000 CERs.

As methane is relatively abundant and has a clean burning process, it is seen as a very attractive fuel for use as an alternative energy source.