The Philippine Bio-Industries Inc. (PBI), a major carrageenan exporter company, has inked a one-year power supply deal with First Gen Corporation, the country’s clean energy leader, for the latter to provide electricity generated from a renewable energy source.

First Gen said the deal with PBI, was cemented via its parent firm W Hydrocolloids Inc. (WHI), and the details of the contract had been finalized by the parties last month.

The electricity to be delivered to PBI’s carrageenan production facilities in Calamba, Laguna will be from the150-megawatt Bacon-Manito geothermal plant of the Lopez group – and that shall be at a scale of 650 kilowatts.

According to Carlo Vega, vice president of First Gen, the new partnership it firmed up with PBI “validates our optimism that there are thousands of other companies out there, like WHI, that share with us a common desire to pursue a decarbonized and regenerative future.”

He qualified that while the individual shift of companies or entities to RE as energy source “might not make a dent in the fight against climate change, but together, the amount of carbon dioxide we displace with the use of clean energy can make a big difference in stopping climate change.”

The supply pact between WHI and First Gen was under the ambit of the retail competition and open access (RCOA) policy of the restructured domestic power industry – and it sets off more meaning, because it is the choice of the customer to patronize RE for its energy usage.

For WHI President John Wee, he indicated that their company opted to secure electricity supply from First Gen “in our conscious effort to lower our carbon footprint and minimize carbon pollution’s impact on our environment.”

Wee specified “with this partnership, we are now using 100-percent renewable energy in our PBI facility in Laguna and are also in the process of executing it for our Carmona plant facility in Cavite.”

The WHI executive added that the switch to RE in their energy usage is in keeping with their goal “to achieve our commitment to a sustainable future – from supporting ecological seaweed communities for our raw materials to using 100-percent eco-clean energy on our plant facilities.”

As emphasized by Wee, “our customers abroad, especially those in the EU (European Union), are ramping up their respective sustainability programs in support of global efforts to stop the further buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that aggravates man-made climate change.”

The WHI executive thus noted further “we share with our customers their concern about the environment,” as he reiterated that “we aligned ourselves with their efforts by putting in place a stringent environmental protection program to minimize our impact on the environment.”