Mindanao to help sustain the island's electricity needs from now until 2014.
"We all know that power shortage in Mindanao will surely come. It's inevitable!
Power plants take years to be built and made operational. Thus the urgency of
the matter," he wrote in his column Advocacy Mindanao.
Dureza added that the forthcoming power shortage which will hit Mindanao today
until three years from now will have an accumulated 484 MW.
This is equivalent of today's power consumption of 5 primer cities of Mindanao
combined.
These cities will all bear the brunt and by then put Mindanao in the dark when
that shortfall comes, he added.
Dureza explained the necessity is to build a mix power source like geothermal,
coal and hydro power plants.
On the other hand, he also said that our "best bet to address the power
situation is to build power plants from renewable energy sources like solar,
wind or biomass," the use of garbage to generate electricity.
But again, he said, renewable energy will not be adequate to address the
situation and is too costly.
Solar energy costs hundred of millions of dollars, wind is not dependable
anywhere in the country and hydro power is affected by climatic conditions like
El Nino.
He concluded that diesel and coal are more favorable as these have capacity
factors of 70-80 percent. (MM MEDINA)
