Singaporean renewables energy company Nexif Ratch Energy (NRE) has confirmed the start of commercial operations at a 74MWp solar PV project in Camarines Sur, South Luzon, the Philippines.
The Calabanga solar project, which NRE said was the first utility-scale solar power project in the Bicol Region, will deliver clean energy to the national grid, maintained by the state-owned National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.
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NRE will sell about 85% of the generated electricity through a power supply agreement with a subsidiary of the AboitizPower Corporation. The remaining generated power will be supplied to the wholesale electricity spot market or commercial and contestable customers via direct short-term contracts.
Construction had been undertaken via a lump-sum turnkey engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with a consortium of PowerChina Huadong Engineering Corporation and PowerChina Philippines Corporation.
Cyril Dissescou, CEO of Nexif Ratch Energy, revealed the company’s delight at its first operating project in the Philippines. More projects, such as its 145MWp Visayas solar project, are set to come online soon.
“The Calabanga solar project demonstrates our commitment to delivering reliable and sustainable energy solutions and contributing to the Philippines’ renewable energy objectives,” Dissescou added.
Solar PV in the Philippines
This development comes as the Board of Investments (BOI) in the Philippines granted a ‘green lane certificate’ for developing a solar-plus-storage project claimed to be the “world’s largest”. In doing so, this would enable the project to be developed at a faster rate.
As reported by PV Tech yesterday, the project in question is the Terra Solar project, which plans to pair 3,500MW of solar PV with a 4,500MWh battery energy storage system (BESS).
The geographical challenges of building large-scale projects in the Philippines, an archipelago nation with around 7,100 islands, has led to the development of various innovative solutions to help support its decarbonisation.
Last year, Singaporean renewable energy developer Blueleaf Energy revealed ambitious plans for the floating solar sector, which include an initiative to build 1.3GW of floating solar capacity in the Philippines alongside local EPC firm SunAsia Energy.
