Leviste-founded Solar Philippines is currently accelerating discussions with prospective off-takers (capacity buyers) of the generated electricity of up to 10,000 megawatts (10 gigawatts) of solar farm installations that the company will be advancing to implementation and construction phases within the short-term.
The company indicated that it “submitted offers to substantially contract its 10 GW of developments,” adding that these targeted power supply agreements (PSAs) are currently “pending the approval of off-takers and regulators.”
It added that if the off-take deals are approved, “Solar Philippines would potentially have 9.0 TWh (terawatt-hours) per year of contracted energy, which would serve as a critical mass of demand enabling 10GW of developments scheduled to commence operations mostly between 2025 to 2026.”
As stated by Solar Philippines founder Leandro Leviste, “while we have been constrained from commencing on our projects due to ongoing contracting processes, we look forward to share more details in the coming days, and to give a better picture of what SPNEC will look like after the asset-for-share swap.”
Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corporation (SPNEC) is the listed firm-subsidiary of Solar Philippines, which is initially pushing for 500MW solar farm installations. And with the targeted asset-for-share swap deal being firmed up between the two entities, the 10,000MW capacity of Solar Philippines is eyed to be infused eventually into SPNEC.
Apart from the bilateral PSAs being pursued by Solar Philippines with various off-takers – primarily with distribution utilities, the company also submitted tenders under the Green Energy Auction Program (GEAP) of the government.
Under the GEAP, of which initial auction of 2,000MW capacity was administered by the Department of Energy (DOE) last Friday (June 17), the winning developers of renewable energy (RE) projects will be awarded with 20-year power supply contracts.
According to sources from the energy department, Solar Philippines has been among the project-developers which lodged a winning tender. Nevertheless, the agency indicated that formal announcement of the winning offers will be done this week after its evaluation and post-qualification process of all the qualified tenders.
Evidently at this stage, the biggest solar farm development being advanced by the Leviste-led firm is the 3,500MW project with 4,500-gigawatt hour (GWh) battery storage coupling, which is its joint venture with Prime Infrastructure Holdings Inc. of the Razon group.
That installation, to be developed under corporate vehicle Terra Solar, will provide 850MW of mid-merit electricity requirements of power utility giant Manila Electric Company (Meralco) within the tenor of their 20-year power supply pact.
Other solar-battery storage ventures affiliated with Solar Philippines entities are the 2,000MW of targeted developments in Central Luzon which is its joint venture with ACEN Corporation of the Ayala group; as well as array of greenfield projects in South Luzon and Visayas. ###