Cabei signs US$3.15mn loan for biomass project

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (Cabei) has signed a US$3.15mn financing agreement with the Honduran sugar refiner Tres Valles to build a 12.3MW cogeneration plant using bagasse as fuel, Cabei said in a statement. The loan is for eight years with a grace period of one year. Tres Valles will finance the rest of the project through a US$550,000 loan from a local bank, the statement said. "The financing will contribute to increase the capacity of generating electricity and reducing pollution in the country at a lower cost that other technologies that use fuel for thermoelectric generation," the statement said. The biomass project, located in the municipality of San Juan de Flores in the department of Francisco Morazán about 70km from Tegucigalpa, will save the country US$600,000 a year, the statement said. Tres Valles will use the electricity itself in its manufacturing process and sell the surplus power to state power company ENEE.