By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — President Benigno Aquino III will visit Negros Occidental on May 15, Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. yesterday confirmed.
The President will inaugurate the 22-megawatt (MW) solar power plant in San Carlos City and the Himugaan Bridge in Sagay City.
Some members of the Presidential Management Staff were already in the province to facilitate Aquino’s visit, said Marañon.
However, according to his staff, the President cannot inaugurate the Negros First CyberCentre, one of the Marañon’s pet projects, the governor said. It was not clear why.
He said there is no specific schedule yet for Aquino’s activities in the province.
What is definite, he said, is that the President will fly directly to San Carlos in the morning for the solar plant launch and then proceed to Sagay for the bridge opening.
Since Aquino cannot make it, the CyberCentre inauguration would be rescheduled, according to the governor.
Marañon said the new bridge in Sagay, worth P335 million, is expected to cut travel time to the north by about 20 minutes.
“The old bridge in [Brgy.] Fabrica was built in 1935 and was bombed during World War II. It is not safe for big sugarcane trucks to pass through anymore,” he said.
He also welcomed the opening of the country’s largest solar power plant in San Carlos. The plant will start its commercial operations this week.
“Any renewable energy is good,” he said. “[It] is an answer to our power requirement. We will not use oil and coal. It will also protect our environment.”
The San Carlos Solar Energy Inc. is a joint venture between Bronzeoak Philippines Inc. and ThomasLloyd Group. It is located in the city’s economic zone.
It is expected to help improve power supply in the Visayas grid with the possible spike in consumption in view of the projected long dry spell next month.
The consortium invested P1.9 billion to develop the solar plant. With its 88,000 photovoltaic panels, the plant will initially generate 13 MW within the week and another 9 MW in the following week.
Aside from the solar plant, the consortium plans to put up two biomass power plants: one that can generate 45 MW in Negros Occidental and another that can produce 30 MW in Luzon./PN
