1st solar power plant in Negros Occidental opens

ABOITIZ POWER Corp. subsidiary San Carlos Sun Power, Inc. on Tuesday inaugurated its first solar power plant in Negros Occidental, which will deliver an estimated 82 gigawatt-hours of energy to the Visayas grid yearly.

In a statement, Aboitiz Power said the project, with a peaking capacity of 59-megawatts (MW), started delivering energy to the grid on March 9, or six days before the March 15 deadline set by the Department of Energy (DOE) for solar-powered plants to qualify under the feed-in tariff (FIT) scheme.

The company said San Carlos Sun’s clean and renewable power output was expected to qualify for FIT incentives and get priority dispatch in the electricity spot market with a guaranteed rate of P8.69 per kilowatt-hour. The DOE has yet to issue a final list of qualified solar projects.

“Aboitiz Power is one of the country’s largest producers of renewable energy and our Cleanergy portfolio generates 1,263 MW, or close to 40% of our total net sellable capacity,” said Erramon I. Aboitiz, the listed company’s chief executive officer.

“This represents our commitment to support the government’s push for a balance of renewable and nonrenewable power sources to address the country’s increasing energy demand,” he added.

The project was put up on a 75-hectare property in the San Carlos Ecozone in Barangay Pu-nao, San Carlos City on the eastern side of Negros Island. It started building in August 2015, employed more than 4,000 workers during the construction phase.

Aboitiz Power, one of the Philippines’ leading developer and operator of renewable energy power plants, closed on Tuesday at P44 per share, unchanged from the previous day’s close. —