Bandung mayor wants trash-fueled power plant
Tuesday, July 4 2006 - 01:47 AM WIB
Building the 30-megawatt plant would cost Rp 630 billion (US$66.31 million), he said.
Dada said over the weekend he had been inspired by the transformation that came over the city after 600,000 cubic meters of waste from 255 garbage transfer sites was transported to other regions.
Garbage had been heaping up in the city since Leuwigajah dump in Cimahi was closed after more than 100 residents were killed in garbage slides in February 2005.
The idea of building a power plant powered by methane, a gas that is produced when waste decays, Dada said, had been presented to National Development Planning Board officials on June 27 in Jakarta. On Wednesday, it will be brought before the same board.
Similar letters have already been sent to Vice President Jusuf Kalla and the relevant state ministers.
?We will construct the best waste management system in the country,? Dada said.
Bandung Sanitation Agency head Awan Gumelar said Monday that building a trash-fueled power plant constituted the best solution amid the garbage crisis.
After both national and international media reported on Bandung?s inability to manage its own waste, Dada famously admitted to feeling ashamed about the problem.
?In Malaysia and Singapore, Bandung?s garbage problem became news. Even in Japan, CNN reported it,? Dada said.
He said in the letter that the plant, with an installed capacity of 30-megawatts, would consume 1,500 tons of garbage daily.
The city produces an average of 7,500 cubic meters or 5,000 tons of trash daily. If the garbage company cooperated with a private firm, the total energy output for the trash-fueled plant could be as much as 90 MW of electricity per day.
However, some members of the Bandung City Council are harboring doubts about the project. Endrizal Nazar, one of the legislators, said the project would require borrowing money, which would only burden the people.
?Moreover a study shows that garbage in Bandung has a water content of 59 percent, while garbage suitable for generating power should have a water content of under 50 percent,? Endrizal said.
The garbage would be burned to produce electricity. Based on a study by the Bandung Institute of Technology, Endrizal said, 1,000 tons of garbage could produce only 5 to 7.5 MW of power
He said that if the plant was constructed before enough research was done, the production costs would outweigh. any profit made
The plant could not be financed through the sanitation agency?s income from~ managing garbage either, because the company suffered Rp 1 billion in losses in 2005 due to rising operational costs..
?We hope there will be at least one private investor,? Awan said.
Despite the controversy, state electricity firm PLN is ready to buy electricity produced by the garbage-fueled plant.
?If it?s true it produces electricity, we?re interested in buying 30 MW a day,? Murtaqi Syamsudin, the general manager of PLN?s West Java-Banten distribution section, said. (*)