BACOLOD CITY – Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC) has invested P3 billion for the expansion of their solar power plant in Barangay E. Lopez, Silay City, Negros Occidental.
CREC President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Oliver Tan, CREC Chairman Edgar Saavedra, Silay City Mayor Joedith Gallego, Provincial Board Member Manuel Frederick Ko, and barangay officials headed by chairman Joel Arce led the groundbreaking of the 69-megawatt (MW) solar power plant on Tuesday, February 20.
CITICORE Renewable Energy Corp. officials headed by President and Chief Executive Officer Oliver Tan (fourth from right) and CREC Chairman Edgar Saavedra (fifth from left), along with Mayor Joedith Gallego (fifth from right), Provincial Board Member Manuel Frederick Ko (third from right), and barangay officials headed by Chairman Joel Arce (third from left) lead the groundbreaking of the 69-megawatt (MW) solar power plant in Barangay E. Lopez, Silay City, Negros Occidental on Tuesday, February 20. (Glazyl Masculino)
After eight years, Tan said that they were able to expand for their Phase 2 power plant, following the establishment of Phase 1 in a 25-hectare property in 2016, with an installed capacity of 25MW and P5-billion funding.
Tan said that the Phase 2 named Citicore Solar Negros Occidental 2 targets to employ about 500 to 700 individuals in the construction phase and about 30 workers will be hired for the operations and security once it is completed by the end of this year or early next year.
Tan said they leased the 70-hectare property for Phase 2 from the Ramos family for 25 years.
With a total of almost 100MW, Tan said that they would be able to provide power to about 70,000 households in the city.
He believed that the province can further develop with the entry of more renewable projects, not only addressing urgent environmental concerns, but also bringing substantial socio-economic gains, while enhancing energy access, security, and self-sufficiency.
“We support Negros Occidental, its steps towards the renewable energy transition. With the completion of this project, we will not only be able to augment the power generation needs of the province and the Visayas grid, but also contribute to the growth of the province,” he added.
Tan said they are planning to put batteries in the second phase of the power plant to enable them to deliver power during night time. “This is going to be the first solar PV plus battery in Negros,” he added.
He said they are studying if they can also expand for the third phase of the solar power plant in the area, adding that solar is cheaper than coal and natural gas.
Tan also said that they are planning to launch agro-solar in the Visayas, particularly in their solar power plants in Silay and Toledo City, Cebu, to help farmers in their livelihood.
He said they started agro-solar in Luzon and they are planning to also reciprocate the same in SIlay City within this year so as not to displace the farmers who are using the agricultural land.
He explained that agro-solar will enable farmers to plant root crops under the solar panel.
Tan said that CREC has a total of 10 solar power plants in the country. Aside from Negros and Cebu, they have one in South Cotabato, two each in Bataan and Tarlac, and one in Bulacan, Clark, and Pampanga.
The company has set a goal to contribute about one gigawatt of ready-to-build solar energy capacity per year for the next five years in line with the Department of Energy’s Philippine Energy Plan which targets to achieve a 35 percent renewable energy share in the power generation mix by 2030 and 50 percent by 2040.
Saavedra stressed the urgency to build more renewable capacities in line with the national government’s plan. “Our vision is to power a First-World Philippines, and CREC is committed to helping our government achieve its vision for clean energy,” he said.
Gallego welcomed the development and thanked the company for pouring such big investment in Silay City.