The Department of Energy (DOE) has extended a contract allowing SunAsia Energy Inc. and its partner, Blueleaf Energy to start the construction of six solar energy projects with combined capacity of 610.5 megawatts (MW)
DOE said each 25-year franchise will be installed on the water surface of Laguna Lake that span the cities of Calamba, Sta Rosa and Cabuyao and the towns of Bay and Victoria.
Raghuram Natarajan, Blueleaf Energy chief executive officer, said four more contracts are to be awarded soon.
All 10 contracts mean the generation of around 1.3 gigawatts of solar power costing between $1.5 to $1.7 billion, Natarajan said.
SunAsia has operated a testbed in Laguna Lake since 2019 to study the behavior of waves, the movement of the wind, the intensity of the sun, and the variability of the temperature in the area.
It said that similar to land-based systems, floating solar panels generate electricity from the sun’s rays but the bodies of water that the farms rest on also help cool panels, allowing them to be more efficient.
Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla also said floating solar projects provide cost-effective renewable energy production without having to occupy usable land mass that could otherwise be used by other sectors such as agriculture.
To date, 237 large-scale solar energy operating contracts with aggregate capacity of 1,282 MW and potential capacity of 21,452 MW have been awarded by the DOE worth around P8.46 billion.
