Leviste-led Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corporation (SPNEC) will be securing additional 2,500 hectares of land in Bulacan and Nueva Ecija provinces for its expanding solar energy projects.
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The company noted that the funding for the property purchases will be sourced from the proceeds of SPNEC’s stock offering, although it has not specified yet the scale of allocation for this undertaking.
The company is targeting the development of up to 3,500 megawatts of solar farms in the two provinces on top of the 500MW that had earlier been identified for SPNEC in Nueva Ecjija.
“This would mark SPNEC’s expansion of operations in the same area of the land secured for its 500 MW solar project, for which the first 50 MW and the transmission for the full 500 MW are under construction,” the company said.
SPNEC and several of its affiliate-companies under Solar Philippines are currently advancing multiple solar projects to implementation phases – including for capacities that had been offered for power supply agreements (PSAs) with the Manila Electric Company.
Solar Philippines has its Terra Solar joint venture with the Razon group which is currently pursuing ‘negotiated deal’ with Meralco for the supply of 850MW mid-merit capacity; and that commands the installation of 3,500MW of solar facilities plus 4,500 megawatt-hours of battery energy storage system; then it has separate offer of 200MW RE baseload capacity which also calls for the construction of 1,800MW of solar farms with integrated energy storage.
The Leviste-founded company will likewise have its hands full on multiple contracts that it had won in the green energy auction program (GEAP) that was concluded by the Department of Energy (DOE) last June – and these are projects not just in the solar investment space, but also on a targeted wind farm installation.
Solar Philippines indicated that it has been “consolidating land and permits” for projects since 2016, which coincided with the timeframe when it applied for its first solar service contract with the energy department.
Solar Philippines founder Leandro Leviste asserted that “over the years, others did not believe these ranchlands far from the grid could be the site for a solar farm.”
The company emphasized that “this clustering of projects in the same area also supports the development of transmission, which would extend over 60 kilometers to connect to NGCP’s substations that supply the Greater Manila Area.”
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines is the country’s sole operator of the power transmission system; and its buildup of facilities that will support the wheeling of renewable energy-generated capacities could greatly help propel the success of targeted massive-scale RE integration in the country’s power system.