Solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) firm SunAsia Energy will build 1.3GW of floating solar PV (FPV) projects on the Laguna Lake, the largest lake in the Philippines.
Along with its investment partner BlueLeaf Energy, SunAsia Energy was awarded the projects as the winning bidder of an auction by the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) for 10 blocks of lake surface totalling 1,000 hectares. BlueLeaf said that by signing the lake lease agreement the projects have secured tenurial rights like environmental compliance certificates.
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Construction is expected in 2025, with operations to begin gradually between 2026-2030.
“Land use is becoming a big issue for renewables, particularly for solar energy projects,” said SunAsia Energy in a press release. “Currently, project developers are struggling to find land to locate the solar power plants. Most of the time, delays in solar energy projects are normally caused by the consolidation of properties and late issuances of land conversion permits. So, there is an incentive to build on water.”
The area to be used for the projects represents around 2% of the 90,000 hectare area of Laguna Lake. Earlier this month, international energy platform ACEN signed agreements with the LLDA to develop 1GW of FPV in the area and on the lake.
Developments like these are pushing the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia further down the path to be a global hotbed for FPV, as forecast by Wood Mackenzie in May. Five of the top ten FPV markets will be Southeast Asian by 2031, the forecast said, as the price of the technology is set to continue to drop. PV Tech Premium explored the tech developments in FPV earlier this year.
BlueLeaf – a subsidiary of Macquarie’s Green Investment Group – and SunAsia originally announced their partnership in 2021, intending to develop 1.25GW of solar PV in the Philippines. It didn’t specify any FPV projects at the time.