Philippines banks on solar
Given the limited scale of solar in the Philippines, it is perhaps surprising that there are plans to develop one of the world’s biggest combined PV and energy storage projects in the country.
Solar Philippines New Energy Corp. (SPNEC) will build the 3.5 GW solar and 4.5 GWh battery Terra Solar project in the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Bulacan on the Philippine island of Luzon.
Some 2.5 GW of solar and a 3.3 GWh battery energy storage system (BESS) will arrive in phase one before April 2026, with the balance due a year later.
In September 2024, UK-based infrastructure investor Actis agreed to take a 40% stake in Terra Solar for $600 million, with the deal set to close by April 2025. Local media have referred to a $4 billion construction cost, which is most likely for phase one alone.
The project will connect to the grid via an existing 550 kV transmission line, with another line to be added. Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the Philippines’ largest electric utility and owner of 50.5% of SPNEC, has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) covering 850 MW of the site’s generation capacity for 12 hours per day.
The nation’s Board of Investments (BOI) gave the site a green lane certificate in August 2024, speeding up permitting processes for strategically important infrastructure.
The 3,500-hectare site will power around 2.4 million households, based on typical monthly demand for 200 kWh. Luzon, the country’s largest island, counted 64 million residents in 2021, and hosts just over half of the Philippines’ population, the capital city of Manila, and most of the nation’s industrial capacity. Terra Solar’s developers say the project will supplant coal-fired power.
Rahul Agrawal, head of energy for Southeast Asia at infrastructure investor Actis, explained that Southeast Asia is home to some of the most dynamic economies globally, and the region’s energy transition is picking up speed. “The Philippines is showing real purpose on the energy transition and no project represents this more than the Terra Solar project,” he said, revealing it will co-locate solar with battery storage on a scale the region hasn’t seen before, backed by a “sizable PPA”, to deliver a stable renewable power supply to Luzon’s main grid.
Contractors have been appointed. Huawei will supply the BESS and US-based Jacobs will provide engineering and technical guidance. State-owned China Energy Investment Corp. landed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract in November 2024 that includes local training.
However, a spokesperson for S&P Global Commodity Insights warned pv magazine that it is not uncommon for projects of this size to run into delays. “These may arise if the company encounters challenges related to rights-of-way or grid constraints,” they said.
Shabrina Nadhila, electricity policy analyst for Southeast Asia at energy think tank Ember, agreed that developing such large projects can be challenging.
“Delays usually arise from challenges such as complex administrative and bureaucratic processes, including securing land permits and navigating procurement procedures,” she said.
Project delaysThe Philippines government had predicted the nation’s total electricity generating capacity would hit around 32.3 GW by the end of 2024, but the actual figure was at least 1 GW lower. Installed PV capacity reached 2.3 GW, with 820 MW of solar added in 2024, breaking the previous record of 320 MW of newly installed capacity in 2021. Even so, this was far below the 2 GW of new solar the government has forecast for 2024. Manila’s ambitions were frustrated by project delays.
In October 2024, the Department of Energy warned that licenses for 53 solar projects could be canceled because of slow progress, with some of those contracts awarded in 2017. The contracts stipulated that feasibility, grid, and other surveys must be completed within two years, but many have failed to complete grid connection studies on time. If contracts are withdrawn, they could be reallocated to other developers.
Completed projects include the SPNEC-developed 150 MW Concepcion project on Luzon, commissioned in 2019, and in 2016, the 63 MW Calatagan solar farm in Batangas, Luzon – the first utility-scale PV project developed and constructed by a Philippine company. The company is also developing the 500 MW Nueva Ecija Solar Farm, also on Luzon.
Vena Energy, another big developer, completed the 132 MW Cadiz project in Western Visayas in 2016, and the 83 MW Ilocos Norte Solar PV project in Ilocos in 2023.
In August 2024, Vena announced that it would build the 550 MW Bugallon solar project with an unspecified amount of battery energy storage in Bugallon, on Luzon, by the end of 2025. That will be the country’s second-biggest PV project behind Terra Solar.
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