Listed firm Aboitiz Power Corporation is scaling up its blueprinted 94-megawatt Cayanga solar farm project in Pangasinan with the construction of its commercial development phase seen to start soon.

The company said it already broke ground for the proposed solar project, which will serve as a follow-through to its pioneering utility-scale 59MW SaCaSun solar development in San Carlos, Negros Occidental.

The engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the Pangasinan solar project was awarded to Japanese firm subsidiary JGC Philippines in December last year. This will be implemented by its wholly owned subsidiary Aboitiz Renewables Inc.

Once completed, the facility’s P4.5 billion investment is expected to bring in socio-economic benefits to its host communities in the province.

Aboitiz Power indicated the bulk of the plant’s generated capacity “will be contracted for retail electricity supply, which can help bring cleaner and more sustainable energy to power consumers across the country.”

Taking cue from that, Pangasinan Governor Amado I. Espino III noted that the Aboitiz firm’s multi-billion peso venture will be a “significant investment in sustainable power generation,” that in turn could help “address the country’s need for more and cleaner energy sources to fuel the nation’s growth.”

The provincial leader said the project marks the start of a partnership “to provide safe and renewable electric power to our people while protecting the environment for the next generations to enjoy.”

David J. Smith, executive director of ARI, highlighted that “Cayanga solar is a very significant project for us ...this marks the beginning of our exciting journey ahead — growing our renewable energy portfolio over the next 10 years to accelerate the Philippine energy transition to more environmentally sustainable sources.”

The capacity build-up cast by the Aboitiz group will be renewable energy installations that shall be ramped up to 4,000 megawatts by the turn of the decade – and that will be part of its strategy to rebalance its capacity portfolio into a 50:50 ratio of green energy sources and thermal facilities.

“Construction is set to begin on the project immediately and is targeted to be operational by the fourth quarter of 2022,” Aboitiz Power emphasized.

According to the project-developer firm, its EPC contractor JGC had so far “completed the site investigation works and the results were used for the ongoing detailed engineering and design of the facilities.”

The power firm added that “temporary facilities are being erected and completion of the access road going to the plant is currently underway.”

It thus stressed that once set on commercial stream, “the power plant is expected to produce about 147 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy annually or equivalent to the yearly power consumption of 60,000 average Filipino homes.”