Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos Jr attended as construction began on what is thought to be the world’s largest power plant to combine solar PV and battery storage.
Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corporation (SPNEC) is planning to add a 3.5GW solar farm to its 500MW system already under construction on the Northern Filipino region of Luzon, which the company claims would make it the largest PV project in the world.
An infrastructure company owned by billionaire Enrique Razon is planning to build a solar-plus-storage plant in the Philippines that will feature 2.5 – 3.5GW of PV.
The equity transfer comes weeks after Meralco launched a 2MW/2MWh battery electric storage system 50km north of Manila that will work to stabilise energy from a 3.8MW solar farm.
PV developer and manufacturer Solar Philippines plans to enter the Indian solar market, but then use that experience to become even more competitive in Southeast Asia.
A provision in the Philippines giving medium-scale electricity consumers the ability to choose between retail electricity suppliers other than the local utility has had a major boost after a Supreme Court issuance in its favour.
Solar PV has a strong role to play in the Philippines where energy demand continues to grow and the power mix remains expensive. While significant utility-scale solar deployments peaked ahead of a deadline to qualify for the Feed-in-Tariff in March this year, a new subsidy quota is on the horizon. PV Tech caught up with Pete Maniego, senior policy adviser of the Institute for Climate & Sustainable Cities and of Counsel of Dime & Eviota Law, to gather his insights on solar subsidies and how PV can compete with fossil fuels in the Southeast Asian country.
