Filipino firm investing $120M for 60-MW Cebu solar power project

Filipino firm SunAsia Energy will be investing $120 million for a 60-megawatt (MW) solar power project to be sited in Toledo City, Cebu province.

In a statement to the media, the company has noted that the facility will be sited in a 70-hectare land, and it shall be equipped with 200,000 high-grade solar panels of European standards.

The project’s completion is targeted by February 15, 2016 – which is a month ahead of the prescribed cut-off on the next wave of feed-in-tariff (FIT) availment for solar projects.

The company added the solar farm installation had been planned and designed with alignment to nature – given that the project site is home to vital livestock resources.

SunAsia president Tetchi Capellan said “the present land use will be preserved for livestock production and only a fraction of the area in the farms will contain panels and infrastructure.”

She explained further “the solar modules will be arranged in 5,000 arrays spread in the 70-hectare property.”

The solar firm has emphasized that “the plant layout demonstrates that the modules will be raised off the ground at least 70mm high to allow small animals to graze the area.”

Solar development in the country is an intense competition this time with the next wave of subsidies being capped at 450MW aggregate installation.

The second FIT for the technology as approved by the regulators had been set 8.69 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) and the qualified projects will be those reaching commercial commissioning by March 15, 2016.

The initial FIT for solar was set at a higher 9.63 per kWh; but the FIT subsidy had just been earmarked to 50MW of project developments then.