In Thailand, Al Tayyar Energy has helped to build a 20-megawat power plant in Phichit using rice husks as fuel. The plant, which opened last week, was developed by a joint venture, AT Bio Power Co Ltd, in which Al Tayyar is a part owner. The opening was presided over by Al Tayyar's president, Prince Moulay Hicham Ben Abdallah.

The firm also has two husk-driven power plants under construction in Thailand. It has built Asia's biggest biogas-driven power plant in Nakhon Ratchasima and is preparing to build three similar plants in Thailand.

The company is also expanding in other parts of Southeast Asia as well as in India and Sri Lanka.

A source at AT Bio Power said Al Tayyar Energy invests in power plants fuelled by biomass or biogas in Asia with the aim to help preserve the environment and save energy costs amid rising oil prices.

AT Bio Power's chief executive, ML Chanaphun Kridakorn, said the Phichit plant has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement with the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (Egat) and has been supplying power under this agreement since December.

The project will help the country save up to Bt800 million a year for bunker oil or Bt1.7 billion a year for diesel.

Other investors in the project are Chubu Electric Power Company International BV, a subsidiary of Japan's third-largest electricity company; Chubu Electric Power Company Inc; Private Energy Market Fund LP, a Helsinki-based private equity fund focusing on renewable energy projects; the Finnish Fund for Industrial Cooperation Ltd, a development finance company owned by the Finnish government; Flagship Asia Corp; and Rolls-Royce Power Ventures, a top developer in the power market.

 Watcharapong Thongrung

 The Nation