Local renewable energy developer Solar Philippines is eyeing the establishment of solar energy zones where companies can co-locate projects in prepared sites with common facilities to benefit from economies of scale.
The company has established a subsidiary called Solar Energy Zones Inc. (SEZ) independent from the group’s power plant business.
SEZ will cater to the demand for solar project sites of other power companies with an initial 10,000 hectares of land from Batangas, Tarlac and Nueva Ecija dedicated for the venture.
“Our aim is no longer to compete with the country’s power companies but to enable them to build projects, to ensure that solar soon becomes the largest source of new energy in the Philippines,” said Leandro Leviste, Solar Philippines founder, in a statement.
“…despite… significant demand for new solar plants, there is a scarcity of sites. Our SEZs will make it easy for any of these power companies that decide to build solar to locate in these zones and start construction that same year,” Leviste added.
Solar Philippines said SEZ’s business model is patterned after solar parks in India which helped in lowering barriers to entry for solar power development.
Solar Philippines is developing a solar power project in Nueva Ecija set to be the biggest in the country with a capacity of up to 500 megawatts (MW).
Among its recent partnerships are with Korea Electric Power Corp.’s 63 MW solar farm in Batangas and with the Razon Group’s Prime Infra for a 200 MW solar project in Tarlac.
Its other projects include the 2 MW solar-battery micro grid in Palauan, Occidental Mindoro, 1.5 MW rooftop power plant on SM North EDSA, 1.2 MW on Robinsons Place Palawan, 0.7 MW on Central Mall Biñan in Laguna and 0.6 MW on CityMall Roxas.
Based on data from the Department of Energy, the current biggest solar power project in the country as of end-2020 is the 132.5 MW Helios solar farm in Negros Occidental.
For the similar period, the total figure of installed capacity from solar power projects in the country is already at 1,012 MW or 3.9 percent of the power mix. -J. Macapagal
