ACEN starts construction of 60MW solar plant in Pangasinan
By Myrna M. Velasco – January 27, 2023, 4:01 PM
from Manila Bulletin
Listed firm ACEN Corporation has formally declared the start of construction of its 60-megawatt solar farm development in Pangasinan this year and is targeting to bring this commercially on-line within a span of several months.
The greenfield installation will beef up the company’s portfolio that is seen hitting 700 megawatts in the next 12 months, according to ACEN Chief Development Officer Jose Maria Zabaleta.
As previously announced, the project will cost P2.8 billion and the projected electricity generation of the facility will be 94 gigawatt-hours annually.
The Ayala-led energy company is perceptibly the most aggressive solar project developer in the country; although there is also an intensifying call on project-sponsors to keep a defensible balance on the use of land resources for such installations, given the crisis that is now hitting various sub-segments of the country’s food sector.
For the utility-scale solar installation in Pangasinan, it was qualified that the facility can provide electricity service to at least 55,000 homes and that could also cause the displacement of 58,369 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
The project blueprint specified that ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) solar panels will be deployed; while grid integration will be done through a 2-kilometer (km) transmission line linked to the 69-kilovolt (kV) San Manuel substation of system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.
Early this week, the Ayala company also reported the start of construction this year of its 300MW Palauig-2 solar farm in Zambales province.
That project will cost P16 billion – including the transmission line component that will connect the facility to the Luzon power grid.
The company previously ramped up its development target to 20,000MW of renewable energy (RE) capacity by 2030 – that has been raised from its 5,000MW installation goal until 2025.
Its projects are mainly on wind and solar farm developments, including those in the offshore markets of India, Vietnam and Australia.
