Inayawan garbage to power aircon at legislative building

Aside from promoting the use of liquefied petroleum gas, now being utilized as alternative fuel by many taxicabs here, Cebu City is also working on the harnessing of gas produced by wastes dumped at the Inayawan landfill to produce electricity.

Mayor Tomas Osmeña said that with the expected inauguration of the pilot project on the harnessing of gas from garbage next month, the airconditioning system at the newly renovated legislative building would be operational few months from now, powered by garbage.

He noticed that despite calls to conserve energy, amid spiraling increases in the prices of oil products, little effort is seen to reduce energy consumption especially on the use of airconditioning systems.

“Airconditioning system has the highest energy consumption. But there is very little effort from the government to reduce the use of electricity in airconditioning,” he said.

With this, the mayor decided to design the airconditioning system of the new legislative building. So the city could save energy and finances by as much as 90 percent, he considered the use of biogas.

The mayor recently went to Thailand and India to study how these neighboring Asian countries are able to produce the “cleanest and cheapest airconditioning systems in the world”, which he said would be the same model he would use at the City Hall. He also intends to implement the same at the South Road Properties.

Osmeña said that while waiting for the new system to be operational, which would be in the next six months, the members of the City Council who would be occupying the renovated legislative building can temporarily use their old airconditioning units.

Once operational, he said that the new airconditioning system would be the “best in the Philippines and even in the world.”

City councilors and other officers of the City Hall are expected to be at the newly renovated legislative building by the end of this month. In fact, Vice Mayor Michael Rama already occupied his old office at the said building last week. - Wenna A. Berondo/MEEV