SunAsia estimates up to $1M per MW for f loating solar energy system

SUNASIA Energy, Inc. expects an investment of around $850,000 to $1 million per megawatt (MW) for the floating solar energy system it plans to install on Laguna Lake with a French partner, its top official said.

“Mas mataas ang installation cost ng floating solar (The installation cost of floating solar is higher),” said Tetchi C. Capellan, president and chief executive officer of SunAsia Energy, Inc. in a chance interview.

“It can ranged from $850,000 to $1 million depending on the waves,” she said, adding that if the lake surface is not as calm as expected, more anchors might be required to keep the solar panels steady.

Ms. Capellan declined to disclose the capacity of the power system that SunAsia plans to install on the lake, saying it might alarm the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA). She placed the installation cost for a groundmounted solar energy system at around $600,000 per MW.

“Lahat kami 10 kilowatt ang pilot (All of us have 10 kilowatts for our pilot),” she said, referring to another company that is doing a pilot study of a floating solar in the same lake.

Ahead of disclosing the capacity of the project, SunAsia and French company Ciel & Terre (C&T) announced its collaboration to introduce the patented Hydrelio technology in the Laguna Lake project. The project is led by SunAsia subsidiary NorteSol.

Ms. Capellan described C&T as being behind 500 MW of floating solar installation outside the Philippines. She said the technology provider’s first project in the country is its collaboration with SunAsia.

“LLDA the regulator. They have to be convinced that there is no impact on the lake,” she said.

Ms. Capellan said a previous study by the Asian Development Bank for Vietnam found no harm brought by a floating solar installation on the fish habitat, water quality, and the area’s biodiversity.

She said the same study cleared a maximum penetration rate of 10% a lake’s total area, leaving enough room for floating solar projects on Laguna Lake’s 93,000-hectare total coverage area.

She said SunAsia’s NorteSol unit and LLDA had signed a memorandum of agreement for the floating solar project within the municipal waters of Bay in Laguna.

If LLDA approves the project, the installation could take around six to eight months to be completed, she said.

“Based doon sa pinirmahan namin sa LLDA, magko-conduct na kami ng environmental study (Based on what we have signed with LLDA, we will now conduct an environmental study),” she said.

SunAsia previously quoted LLDA as saying that the partnership between the private sector and government is a major step in harnessing not only Laguna Lake but also the hundreds of water surfaces, such as ponds, irrigation dams, and water quarries for solar energy production.

In October, Winnergy Holdings Corp. announced that it had commissioned a 10-kilowattpeak (kWp) floating solar farm on Laguna Lake within Baras town of Rizal province. It claims the project is the first floating solar farm in the Philippines, thus opening the possibility of using energy from the sun beyond the traditional groundbased and rooftop-mounted systems. —