Filipino-founded Solar Philippines is targeting to advance the construction of more than 1,000 megawatts of solar farm installations next year in at least four provinces within the Luzon grid.
Currently identified sites for the projects are in Batangas, Cavite, Nueva Ecija and Tarlac, according to a statement issued by the company to the media.
Solar Philippines said the programmed projects will be its next round of investments – and come 2022, it envisions these solar farms “to become the largest single portfolio of solar projects in Southeast Asia.”
The company is currently at its “dressing up the bride phase” because of its targeted initial public offering (IPO) at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), an exercise that it stipulated in its earlier press statements.
“The 1.0-gigawatt (GW) of solar projects are planned to create over 20,000 jobs during construction, which will last until 2022, and support government efforts to boost investments in the countryside,” the company stressed.
To advance the pipelined projects to implementation phases, the Filipino firm emphasized “it is bringing in partners and professionals in line with its new strategic direction.”
The company said it can leverage on parallel joint venture deals, similar to what it already signed
up on for its earlier solar farm developments in Calatagan, Batangas and Concepcion, Tarlac.
Solar Philippines acknowledged that project implementations had been snagged by the Covid-19 pandemic, but it looks forward to 2021 when capital injection and construction activities can finally accelerate.
“While Covid-19 slowed approval of permits in 2020…it expects a renewable energy-led economic recovery in 2021 spurred by the DOE’s (Department of Energy) moratorium on new
coal plants in the Philippines,” Solar Philippines stated.
When the greenfield solar developments will finally reach commercial stream, the company said these will “nearly double the country’s total installed solar capacity as of 2020, and are equivalent to the power demand of approximately 10 million Filipinos.”
No definitive statement given on the capacity off-take for the generated electricity of the plants, but next year is also the implementation year of the Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) for the renewable energy (RE) sector; which can then provide a market for new RE projects. (MMV)
Japanese firm finds niche in ready-to-eat rice for changing lifestyle
A Japanese company said demand for ready-to-eat and pre-cooked rice will likely grow because of the changes in people’s lifestyle brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and frequent natural disasters.
BiotechJp Corp (BTJP), a manufacturer of packed rice using low-protein rice technology, has established a new factory in the Philippines in Tarlac Province.The factory has a daily production capacity of 20,000 rice packs and will help BTJP meet the demand of a growing market for packed rice.
“For markets like Japan, the pandemic prompted an increase for packed rice products which is also fueled by consumers resorting to online platforms for convenience and safety.” said Mr. EGAWA Kiyosada, President of BTJP.
Under its Partnership with the Private Sector scheme, JICA supported BTJP in introducing low-protein rice technology in the Philippines to address the growing cases of chronic kidney diseases (CKDs) in the country. The low-protein rice technology helps delay progression of CKD and consequently reduces the costs of medical treatments of patients.
The technology is also able to bring benefits to Filipino farmers by adding value to their rice products, according to the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice).
Apart from the low-protein rice, BTJP has also introduced other variants such as ready-to-eat packed rice with a one-year shelf life that makes it ideal for emergency situations.
This year, back-to-back typhoons and torrential rains left thousands of Filipinos in Bicol, Metro Manila,
Rizal, Cagayan, Isabela, and other parts of the country without access to basic goods, relying on stocked food supplies and emergency relief packages.
“The JICA Partnership with the Private Sector initiative was intended to share innovations from Japanese companies to help address development problems in our partner countries,” said JICA Philippines Senior Representative OHSHIMA Ayumu. “There are 73projects which have beenimplemented with Philippine counterparts to help create jobs and find solutions to common problems in the country, while expanding their business. It’s a win-win relationship.”
The BTJP project in Tarlac is part of the Rice Revolution 21 program that aims to develop the province's rice supply chain and is also a partnership with the Yuchengco Group, PhilRice, and Department of Science and Technology – Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI).
The JICA Partnership with the Private Sector scheme began in 2012 and has been supporting technology transfer, human resource development, and job creation in different parts of the Philippines. The scheme covers areas such as environment, agriculture, disaster management, education, and welfare.