Solar Philippines Starts 150 MW Tarlac Project
While the nation debates whether to prioritize economic growth or environmental sustainability, one company is proving that solar energy is already cheaper than coal.
At the ceremonial groundbreaking of the 150 MW project in Concepcion, Tarlac, with Department of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi as guest of honor, Solar Philippines President Leandro Leviste marked the event as the beginning of a new day for the power industry. The solar project, he noted, will be “the first in the Philippines at a lower cost than coal, the first with battery storage for 24-hour power, and the first to demonstrate that renewable energy as mid-merit and even baseload is not something that will take 10 or 20 years, but is already here.”
Leviste praised the DOE’s policy of letting the market determine the country’s energy mix, rather than prescribing any specific technology. While the conventional wisdom is this is bad for renewable energy, Leviste forecasted that solar with batteries will surprise the industry and emerge as the least cost power source for the country’s mid-merit and part of its baseload requirement.
“If you asked in 1980, what would be the future of telecommunications, the response would be: better landlines. But cellphones and the Internet evolved faster than even the most optimistic forecasts. The same is happening for solar today, and we believe the Philippines, because of its cost of electricity, can be the first to achieve this baseload solar-powered future,” said Leviste.
During his speech, Secretary Cusi expressed his support for the project: “Storage is a very welcome development for the country, hich will allow us to source more power from solar for 24 hours a day. We are happy that Solar Philippines has the courage to prove that storage is already viable.”
Solar Philippines is the developer, investor, contractor, and supplier for its projects, the first time a local company has achieved such a level of integration, which the company believes is the key to making solar costcompetitive. This project will be the first to feature “Made in the Philippines” panels from the Solar Philippines 600 MW Factory in Batangas, which started production this month, and will create over 1000 manufacturing jobs.
The project will be able to power the entire province of Tarlac, and comprise close to 450,000 solar panels and over 150 hectares, with room to expand as demand increases. Over three decades of operation, it will offset over 3 million tons of CO2, equivalent to planting over 15 million trees.
The company plans to start construction on a number of projects in 2017, including 50 MW in Batangas and Cavite, which will supply Meralco under a recently signed agreement, and venture into international markets as the Philippines enters an oversupply of both solar and fossil fuelbased plants. It aims to make the Philippines a leader for solar energy worldwide.