Listed firm Aboitiz Power Corp. has engaged Japanese firm subsidiary JGC Philippines as its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for its P4.5 billion 94-megawatt peak (MWp) solar farm installation in Pangasinan.

The notice-to-award for the EPC deal was served by Aboitiz Renewables Inc. (ARI) on Dec. 15 to JGC Philippines which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Yokohama-headquartered JGC Holdings Corp.

The Pangasinan solar facility, to be sited in the 196-hectare Cayanga property in the town of Bugallon, will be the Aboitiz group’s second utility-scale development on this technology sphere, after its 59MW project in San Carlos City, Negros Occidental.

“Construction on the project is set to begin immediately and is targeted to be commercially operational by the fourth quarter of 2022,” AboitizPower indicated.

The company emphasized that JGC “will commence engineering and design work in parallel with site investigation.”

According to ARI Executive Director David J. Smith, the Aboitiz firm is “excited to work with JGC Philippines on this project, given our shared values and vision of helping create a more sustainable energy system for all,” adding that “this partnership is aligned with our aspiration of growing Cleanergy in the next 10 years.”

Upon the facility’s completion, its projected scale of electricity generation could top 147 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) that would then be able to power more than 60,000 Filipino homes.

“The majority of the facility’s capacity will be contracted for retail electricity supply, which can help bring cleaner and more sustainable energy to power consumers across the country,” the power firm said.

AboitizPower President and CEO Emmanuel V. Rubio qualified though “we’re only just beginning,” while hinting that “there are greater things ahead, but this is surely a key step toward our 10-year strategy of growing our renewable energy capacity as well as striking a 50:50 balance between our Cleanergy and thermal portfolios by 2030.”

After the Cayanga solar venture, next in the company’s lineup will be the tendering process for the 167MWp Laoag solar project in Aguilar, Pangasinan.

The company noted it will also be advancing a wind farm installation to implementation phase “having already erected two met masts in the municipality back in February as well as two more in Bugallon in September.”

As explained, met masts are measuring equipment that will enable data gathering as to the temperature, wind speed and wind direction that will then aid in assessing the energy production potential as well as suitability of the site for the targeted project development.