Korean firm pours in P2B for first large-scale solar farm

MOU-signing
MOU-signing

A KOREA-BASED firm is pouring in P2 billion worth of investment for the development of a 50-megawatt solar power farm, the first large-scale renewable energy (RE) generation source in Bacolod City.

Amatera Renewable Energy Corporation president Mary Grace Helene Buhain, who signed the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with TPC Construction Corporation at L’Fisher Hotel in Bacolod City Thursday night, January 17, said the Korean company has tapped them for such energy generation project.

Buhain said they are utilizing 74-hectare of their family-owned property in Barangay Vista Alegre to give way for the development, which is seen to help Bacolod City especially in terms of revenues and employment.

“Except consultants from Korea, all will be locally-hired workers,” she said, adding this is the first energy generation venture of Amatera, a Bacolod-based company, in the entire country.

For his part, TPC Construction Corporation president Charles Ji, in his speech, said the MOU signing is just the beginning of “beautiful” partnership and collaboration among the two companies.

“We are thankful for the trust given to our company, to work together for this project,” Ji added.

Timeline

The project, whose construction will start possibly this year, has a lease contract renewable for 25 years.

The firms target to start the operation by 2020, in time for the completion of the Cebu-Negros-Panay 230-kilovolt (kV) Backbone Project of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).

Engineer Hanshel Layaoen, Amatera’s technical consultant, said they will be waiting for the advice of the NGCP as to when they can start energizing its new transmission line.

Layaoen said the issue here is the congestion, so the construction cannot move forward without the transmission utility’s backbone project.

The NGCP earlier said the project will translate to an additional transmission capacity of 800MW between Negros and Cebu.

“Just in case the NGCP have it completed by 2020, then it would take like a year to finish the project,” he said, adding that aside from about 100 employees in the technical and labor side, they will need at least 300 workers if construction will be rushed in six to 10 months.

Buhain, moreover, said the start of construction would also depend on the how long the processing of other necessary permits from the government would take.

But she said they hope that the NGCP could deliver on the schedule set so they can build the farm in six-month time.

In terms of where to deliver power, Buhain said both parties will decide. Though the entire country will benefit, the priority is local cooperatives.

“The vision of Amatera goes beyond business, but the social responsibility to benefit everyone,” she added.

Greener Bacolod

Acting mayor El Cid Familiaran, who was also at the MOU signing, said solar is the fastest growing RE energy source of the present time.

Recognizing that solar is the center of local energy transformation now, Familiaran said it does not only provide alternatives for the source of energy but it gives the people of Bacolod more than that.

“This is the first large scale solar energy source in Bacolod and a step towards a greener and more sustainable city,” he said, adding that it opens doors for more opportunities while saving the environment.

Why solar?

The 50MW solar may energize about 230 households during the daytime. Once connected to the grid, it will benefit Bacolod households and those in other areas in the country.

Layaoen they are into solar because with RE generation, though may have higher investment cost, the cost to generate electricity is almost linear.

With conventional energy generation, Layaoen said the investment cost is lower but generation cost increases exponentially every year.

"RE generation prevents the increasing cost of electricity," he said, adding that RE's share in the entire energy generation is only 30 percent thus, its impact is not yet felt much.

Meanwhile, also present during the MOU signing were other top officials of TPC Construction Corp.

For Amatera, other representatives present included its chief operations officer Jose Maria Leandro Norberto De Leon, also the barangay chairman of Vista Alegre, and landowner Teresa Lacson, among others.

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