GOLDEN Rice Cambodia is in the first stages of building a US$2 million rice husk power plant to supply electricity to rice mills in Kampong Speu province’s Oudong district.

Chan Vuthy, general manager of Golden Rice, said that the company had invested US$2 million to build the plant, which is expected to generate up to 3 megawatts of electricity.

“We hope that the construction of the plant will be completely finished by the end of this year,” Chan Vuthy said at the sidelines of the inauguration of the company’s central office in Phnom Penh yesterday.

According to Golden Rice, the plant would consume 5 tonnes of rice husks per hour.

Chan Vuthy said the first steps for construction were already underway, adding that once complete, the company would supply the generated power to all its rice mills, but not to villages, in the surrounding area.

“Our rice mills currently need about 2.5 megawatts of electricity to operate every day,” he said. The company exported 7,000 tonnes of jasmine rice in the first eight months of the year, figures show.