Acciona Energia Global is investing P7.5 billion (about $130 million) to build the 150-megawatt (MW) Daanbantayan solar power plant in Cebu.
In a statement on Thursday, the Board of Investments (BOI) said the project broke ground on March 16 in Barangay Talisay, Daanbantayan.
The BOI said this plant is Acciona Energia’s first plant in the Philippines and the biggest under construction in the Visayas archipelago.
It is also the country’s first public-private partnership (PPP) in the energy sector in collaboration with the Cebu provincial government, it added.
The agency quoted Sr. José Manuel Entrecanales Domecq, chairman and chief executive officer of Acciona, as saying during the ceremony that the 176-megawatt-peak facility is projected to generate about 280 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of clean energy annually, supplying electricity to an estimated 300,000 people.
The BOI statement quoted Domecq as saying that the facility will begin operations in 2026. Commissioning is expected by late 2026, with the facility projected to prevent about 259,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, supporting the Philippines’ carbon reduction goals, the BOI said.
The facility will be constructed on a 187-hectare site across 45 lots, to optimize power distribution and efficiency.
Since the power plant site is less than one kilometer from the Talisay substation of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, the project will serve as a major link between the eastern and central parts of the Visayas grid, according to the BOI.
