Filipino firm Citicore Renewable Energy Corporation (CREC) emerged as one of the "big winners" in the recently concluded second Green Energy Auction (GEA-2) of the government, cornering 916.58 megawatts that will firmly cement its foothold as one of the emerging major players in the renewable energy (RE) sector. The GEA-2 tender process, which was administered by the Department of Energy (DOE), on July 3 this year secured firm offers for more than 3,440MW of capacities across technologies; hence, the total capacity won by Citicore accounted for roughly 26-percent of the total subscribed capacities. Based on the notice of award issued by the DOE, CREC won contracts for 554.58MW of various solar installations; and 362MW of onshore wind capacity. The RE capacities bagged by CREC will be underpinned with 20-year power supply agreements (PSAs) which will guarantee the stream of revenues from these projects for the next two decades. “CREC is slated to deliver 435.58MW in solar power by 2024, and another 119MW by 2026. For wind generation, the company will deliver the full 362MW capacity by 2026,” the company emphasized, adding that “this forms part of the company’s commitment to deliver 1,000MW of renewable generating capacity for the next five years.” Under the GEA-awarded contracts, the capacities to be delivered in 2024 will be 30MW from its Arayat 3A solar power project in Pampanga; 70.5MW from Pagbilao 1 solar facility; 27MW from Pagbilao 2 solar farm; 90MW from Santa Barbara 1 solar project; and 80.1MW from San Manuel-1 solar power project. For year 2026, the warranted capacity-deliveries from CREC will be 80MW from its Pangasinan CW2 wind power project; 100MW Bataan-Zambales wind power venture; 30MW Camarines Sur wind facility; and 152MW Iloilo CW1 wind power farm; while for solar capacities, scheduled on-line at the time will be 20MW from Silay 2b solar farm; 49MW from Toledo solar project in Cebu; 30MW from Silay 2a solar facility; and 20MW Silay solar project. The company noted that “CREC’s submissions passed the Green Energy Auction Committee’s initial qualification,” narrating further that during the final bid submission date last July 3, “representatives from CREC’s legal and regulatory, business development, sales and trading, and investor relations attended.” Early this year, the company unveiled its investment plan for mammoth RE developments that shall yield 5,000MW capacity over the long term – and the programmed capital outlay for these installations would top $4.0 billion. Citicore itself is a trailblazer in the clean energy investment sphere, as its subsidiary Citicore Energy REIT Corp (CREIT), has been the first RE player to list as real estate investment trust (REIT) entity with the Philippine Stock Exchange. And in the food-energy nexus, it is also promoting a unique business model that will partly utilize its power plant-sites for food production, instead of totally gobbling up such land resources for power generation alone. The company said it “continues to support government efforts in increasing the renewable energy mix in the country while providing competitive prices for consumers.” It stressed “sustainable power is crucial in these modern times, and we want to be able to contribute not just to adding energy capacity for the country’s development, but also to ensure that our electricity is clean, renewable, and reasonably priced.”