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Clenergen Corporation has announced that the company’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Clenergen Philippines Corporation, have now commenced 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 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. Currently most remote islands in the Philippines rely upon diesel generated electricity from leased gensets, where the average cost per KW/e is in excess of US 26 cents. As a result, NPC have had to provide up to US 13 cents per KW/e subsidies in order to supply affordable electricity to rural communities. Romblon Island, with a population of 250,000 people, currently experiences up to 8 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. Bamboo is a natural species on most Philippines islands where there exists vast supplies of biomass feedstock generated both from bamboo as well as agricultural waste (coconut shells, rice husks, sugar cane tops and trash). Furthermore, field trials have proven positive with regards to intercropping Beema Bamboo using unproductive land occupied over 1 million hectares of coconut plantations.
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