ACEN, the listed energy company of the Ayala Group, will soon begin building the 60-megaWatt Pangasinan Solar farm, the listed power firm’s first development in the province and the second solar farm to start a major construction this year.
This will push ACEN’s attributable renewables capacity in the Philippines to more than 1,600 MW for projects in operation and under construction.
The P2.8 billion project will use ground-mounted solar photovoltaic panels, and will be directly connected to the grid through a 2-kilometer transmission line to the National Grid Corp.’s 69-kiloVolt San Manuel Substation.
As well, ACEN will acquire 500 million shares of listed power firm SP New Energy Corp. as partial prepayment for a P1 billion loan the Ayala firm extended for the solar project of SP New Energy
The shares of SP New Energy has a market value of P660 million when the deal was reached with Solar PH, the company that pledged those shares to ACEN as loan collateral.
SP New Energy is developing a 500-MegaWatt-peak solar farm in a sprawling property in Nueva Ecija. The location has good levels of irradiance conducive to solar power generation.
Once operational, Pangasinan Solar is expected to generate 94 gigaWatt-hours of renewable energy per year, enough to power an estimated 55,000 homes and avoid approximately 58,369 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. The project also aims to create an estimated 1,000 jobs during the plant’s construction.
“We hit the ground running in 2023 with back-to-back projects commencing with construction here in the Philippines, and 700 MW capacity expected to start operations within the next 12 months. At ACEN, we know it’s a race against time and we need big leaps to help curtail potential power shortages and address climate change. As we aggressively scale up our clean energy generation and help the region transition to a Net Zero economy, we will continue to bolster our development arm to ensure a healthy pipeline,” Jose Maria Zabaleta, chief development officer of ACEN, said:
ACEN aspires to be the largest listed renewables platform in Southeast Asia, with a goal of reaching 20 GW of renewables capacity by 2030. ACEN is committed to transition the company’s generation portfolio to 100 percent renewable energy by 2025 and to become a net zero greenhouse gas emissions company by 2050.
