GAF

This is how the Jobabo bioelectric plant is planned

Las Tunas.- The Agroforestry Company of this eastern Cuban province is preparing to take part in the construction of a bioelectric plant that would provide some 133 thousand 920 megawatts (MW) of electricity a year from the biomass of the marabou. Now the project goes through the meetings between the specialists in charge of manufacturing and assembling the technology, the officials of the Sociedad Mercantil Agroforestal S.A. and the sector authorities in the province.

THE PLANS

The new plant will be operated by the Biomas Electric S.A. joint venture, will cover 11.42 hectares and will be located more than a kilometer from the town of El Lavado, in the aforementioned municipality of Las Tunas. It will use biomass from the thorny plant as raw material so that, in its 20 planned years of operation, it will produce some 2,678,400 MW of electrical energy, according to the estimates of the parties involved.

The investment will cost approximately 76.7 million convertible pesos (CUC), considering the costs of the joint venture project and the financing to acquire the means and equipment needed by Agroforestry.

According to the report prepared by the foreign party in the matter, the technology will be designed and built by the same firm that was in charge of the first bioelectric plant in Cuba that is already operating in the province of Ciego de Ávila. Said company will also prepare the basic engineering project in accordance with Cuban standards, as well as the assembly of the work until its commissioning.

THE OPPORTUNITIES

Those responsible for the work indicate that the Agroforestry Company will benefit from approximately 104 million CUC for the sale of biomass to Biomas Electric SA, during the entire period of the project, energizing its development program until 2030, with the eventual injection of capital resulting from this business.

To this is added that, from its start-up, it will provide among its induced works some 2.2 million CUC for the construction of a 29-kilometer-long line between the city of Las Tunas to El Lavado, necessary for perform energy delivery.

When it is fully operational, it will allow the reorganization of all the electrical networks in the municipality of Jobabo, it will provide more than 500 jobs, 74 of them in industry and the rest in support and forestry tasks, which would positively impact more than 2,250 families.

In environmental indicators it would suppose the improvement of the forest cover of the municipality, since it is foreseen the promotion of about 12 thousand hectares of energy forests; and also the use of water from the dam with the same name, currently unusable for agriculture due to its high content of heavy metals, the plant will require 800 cubic meters of liquid per year.

The community in question would also benefit from the obligatory improvement to the road network of almost the entire municipality, as it needs to be kept in good condition to transport the harvested biomass to the plant. Additionally, each year it would free more than 2,500 hectares of land from Marabou that could be used for food production.