Veritable clean energy developer Citicore Renewable Energy Inc. (CREC) is targeting to beef up its operating solar portfolio with additional 69-megawatt peak (MWp) capacity upon the commercial operations of its second solar farm project in Negros Occidental.

The construction of the firm’s Citicore Solar Negros Occidental-2 venture will immediately start this month, following groundbreaking rites at the project site in Barangay Eustaquio Lopez in Silay City, that had been witnessed by host-local government officials.

The first solar plant of the company in the province has 25MWp capacity, hence, by the time that the new facility would come on-line, CREC’s aggregate capacity for its Negros Occidental installations would already hover at 94MW.

By far, the Silay-2 greenfield solar facility will prospectively be the 11th plant of the Citicore group that will reach commercial operations as expected within the year. The company currently has 10 commercially operating plants with aggregate capacity of 285MW.

“Commercial operation is expected by 2024, as part of CREC’s deliverables for the government’s Green Energy Auction Program (GEAP) 2,” the project sponsor-firm said, as reckoned on the date-specific commercial operations date (COD) or capacity deliveries of the GEA-underpinned long term power supply agreements.

The 20-year PSA for the facility will guarantee CREC’s revenue stream from that second solar farm development in the province – and that in turn, could provide ‘comfort level’ to its project lenders.

Given the ‘one-hectare to one-megawatt configuration’ for solar farm projects, CREC conveyed hat the facility will have a project site sprawling along 69 hectares – and it also has a potential for capacity expansion for up to 100 megawatts.

On the company’s strategic positioning as emerging giant player in the solar development space, CREC President and CEO Oliver Tan enthused that “Negros Occidental can further develop with the entry of more RE projects - not only addressing urgent environmental concerns, but also bringing substantial socio-economic gains while enhancing energy access, security, and self-sufficiency.”

As culled from the power supply-demand outlook drawn up by the Department of Energy (DOE), Visayas grid is a component in the power system that is already inching close to ‘strained supply predicaments’, hence, ramp up in megawatt-installations as well as efficient grid integration would be the ultimate solutions being eyed to spare consumers in these areas from unwarranted service disruptions.

By far, Citicore has been rising up to that challenge – and its solar projects could reinforce supply, especially when there would be sudden peak in demand due to the scorching weather – because by design, the generation capacity of solar plants would be at their highest during the summer months.

For its host-province, in particular, Tan offered his company’s support for Negros Occidental on its journey “towards the renewable energy transition,” adding that “with the completion of this project, we will not only be able to augment the power generation needs of Negros Occidental and the Visayas grid, but also contribute to the growth of the province.”

Not a journey to a thousand miles – but it’s for 5.0GW solar installations

Within a five-year timeframe, the grand investment trajectory that had been cast by CREC would be a distinctive 5.0-gigawatt solar capacity buildout – the growth platform of which shall be at 1,000MW or 1.0GW annually. When that is accomplished, Citicore could stand out as the biggest player in the solar development juggernaut.

Circling back to that goal, CREC Chairman Edgar Saavedra emphasized “the urgency to build more RE capacities in line with the national government’s plan,” referencing on the DOE-framed roadmap for 35% RE share in the energy mix by 2030; and escalating that further to 50% by 2040.

"Our vision is to power a First-World Philippines, and CREC is committed to helping our government achieve its vision for clean energy," he stressed.

The next commercial capacity-deliveries from CREC will be massive – and these will form part of the 792MW of PSA-covered RE capacities that it clinched from the DOE-administered green energy auction.

“With more projects in the pipeline, CREC is committed to working with the DOE and local governments as we transition to more renewable sources of energy for the Visayas and our country,” Saavedra indicated.

The ‘sunshiny investment’ pathway of CREC is already advancing on to its second gigawatt of solar installations; as the first wave of 1.0GW projects have already been fully funded and are now at various stages of implementation.