Solenergy installs rooftop solar PV system for JTI’s plant in Batangas
By Lenie Lectura – June 14, 2018
from Business Mirror
SOLENERGY Systems Inc. has installed a rooftop solar PV system running at 4.77 megawatts peak-energy generation for Japan Tobacco International’s (JTI) new manufacturing plant in Batangas.
The solar-power system is composed of 17,040 solar panels from Canadian Solar Inc., covering a roof area of over 27,000 square meters. Solenergy said this is the largest in Southeast Asia, and among the largest in the world. The panels are then connected to 213 Fronius International GmbH grid-tied inverters, which convert the yielded solar power to electricity.
“The system was designed for self-consumption to directly offset JTI’s power demands,” said Solenergy in a statement. JTI is one of the biggest tobacco companies in the world.
Self-consumption of solar power is becoming more popular in the Philippines, with industrial and commercial facilities seeing the benefit in offsetting daily power demands.
Solenergy said the solar PV system is expected to generate close to 6.5 gigawatt hours of energy, which is enough to power 4,300 homes. The system will offset as much as 4 million kilogram of carbon dioxide emissions that would otherwise have been produced by grid-sourced power.
Solenergy’s participation in the project began months before the groundbreaking of the facility began. Since preconstruction phase, close coordination with JTI had been key to streamlining the architectural and electrical designs of such a large project.
One of the challenges identified was finding a cost-effective and structurally sound mounting solution for the plant’s roof system. Solenergy said it designed a bracketing system that achieved these objectives while maintaining the roof’s watertight seal. Incorporated in 2012 as a renewable-energy systems engineering and solutions provider, Solenergy was founded with the mission of providing cutting-edge photovoltaic systems to commercial power users at financially viable prices.
