MANILA, Philippines -  Bacavalley Energy Inc., a local firm that wants to be the largest renewable energy company in the country, will engage in several projects worth more than $430 million starting this year.

The company is already in talks with numerous foreign firms interested in geothermal, biomass and hydropower projects around the country.

“We are putting up a four-megawatt (MW) methane project in Navotas. Initially, it will be 2-MW in the 32-hectare landfill,” Bacavalley Energy president Peregrino Fernandez Jr. said.

Fernandez said the company, which has a foreign partner, is finalizing the agreement with the landfill builders.

Construction will start in September and the methane power project will be operational after a year.

Fernandez said it will invest $7 million for the initial two-MW or a total of $14 million for the entire four-MW project.

Bacavalley Energy is owned by businessman Salvador B. Zamora II who also holds a majority stake in Montalban Methane power project, the first methane power plant in the country.

In April 2009, Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) signed a contract for Montalban Methane Power Corp. to supply 8.19-MW to the power distributor. Fernandez said the new output will also be supplied to Meralco.

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By Neil Jerome C. Morales