Conal Holdings developing renewable-energy source

Conal Holdings Corporation has announced that it is responding to popular clamor for the tapping or renewable sources for power generation.
Conal Holdings vice president for business development Joseph Nocos said they are winding up their feasibility studies on the three-tier 17-megawatt mini hydro power plant along Sigil River and are looking into the possibility of also building a hydroelectric power station along the Kalaong River in Maitum, Sarangani.
Nocos said, based on their initial study, the Kalaong River could generate as much as 30 megawatts of electricity.
Conal Holdings is likewise developing a 40MW hydro power project along Bago River and another 12MW hydro power plant along Carol-an River, both in Negros Occidental.
“We are developing hydro projects with a potential total capacity of around 100MW,” Nocos said in reaction to a statement by World Wild Fund for nature program for energy development and climate change head Naderev Saño.  
The Conal Holdings executive, however, took exception to the accusation that burning coal in its proposed US$450 million power plant project in Maasim, also in Sarangani, “will cause deleterious effects and will pollute the air.”
Saño said the plant will cause acid rain, aggravate asthma and poison aquatic life due “to radioactive materials such as uranium and thorium.”
“Mr. Saño could not have been referring to our power plant as the conditions that would lead to the deleterious effects he enumerated are not going to be present in our project,” Nocos said.
He explained that the power plant to be built in Maasim will make use of the latest in circulating fluidized bed technology.
“This will ensure that the sulfur dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions of the power station will be substantially below the limits prescribed by the Clean Air Act, guaranteeing that the operation of the plant will be clean and safe for the environment,” he explained.
“Examples of the type of power plant that we are going to build are in operation all over the world, none of which have caused acid rain, aggravated asthma, and poisoned aquatic life due to thorium and mercury.
“Our coal-fired power plant in Maasim is the most economic response to the prevailing power crisis in Mindanao.  Without it going on commercial stream in the latter part of 2012 or early part of 2013, the region could suffer from prolonged power interruptions,” the power firm executive added.
Nocos also explained that it will take at least three years to construct a power plant with a capacity of 200-megawatts.
“Counting the research and development period, it will take a total of at least five years before one could build a power station,” he further explained.
Conal Holdings was granted environmental compliance certificate (ECC) in April and construction of the 200-megawatt coal-fired power project will likely commence towards the end of the first quarter of next year.