Biomass facility planned for the Philippines

In Iloilo province, the Philippines, renewable energy company Global Biomass broke ground on its $4 million (€2.8 million) biomass research and manufacturing facility on 7 August 2011.

The 5,000m2 facility, named the 'Global Biomass PLC Corp. Research Development and Manufacturing' facility (GBC R-D-M) is 'the very first of its kind in the world', according to David de Montaigne, CEO of Global Biomass Group.

'The GBC R-D-M will conduct research, develop, design and manufacture equipment to support the harvesting, collection, transportation, storage and processing of agricultural wastes for use as an alternative to fossil fuels, as well as biomass fuel transportation and handling systems for biomass power plants,' he says.

Global Biomass' sister company Green Power Panay Philippines will operate the facility, which will generate 35MW of renewable power from waste materials, including rice straw, corn straw, coconut, banana and pineapple.