The Philippine Solar and Storage Energy Alliance (PSSEA) has asked the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to reconsider its recommended rates for floating solar technology under the second Green Energy Auction (GEA-2), saying these are too low.
The suggested GEA-2 rate is P4.7565 per kilowatt hour (kWh). PSSEA proposes a rate of P7.3661 per kWh for the scheme to be feasible.
Under GEA, interested RE producers will compete for incentivized fixed power rates by offering their lowest price for a certain capacity.
PSSEA said in a position paper unlike in ground-mounted solar panels, floating solar projects incur additional costs in construction and operations, including but not limited to installation of floaters as well as an anchoring and mooring system.
The group also called on the ERC to remove solar energy service contracts as a requisite for solar developers as the Department of Energy suspended the issuance of service contracts and has been issuing operating contracts instead to solar developers.
Tetchi Cruz-Capellan, chief executive officer of Sun Asia Energy, a member of PSSEA, said they are “thankful” the ERC recognized floating solar technology’s inherent difference with ground- mounted technology.
“That’s a good step but I think they have to understand that in order to open the doors to make floating solar commercial, they have to give high tariffs so that the first pioneer who is going to absorb all the different problems in the first set can be compensated,” Capellan told reporters in an interview on Wednesday.
Capellan said cited the feed-in-tariff where the first set of renewable energy investors were provided with higher tariffs when the scheme was first introduced. The rate but was significantly lowered in the succeeding rounds when more developers became interested.
For GEA-2, 300 megawatts worth of floating solar projects can participate but these have to be completed before 2026 to qualify.
Supply contracts will be for a 20-year period beginning from the date of the commercial operation of the projects.
