Philippine billionaire to build world’s largest solar power facility

MANILA, June 8 (Reuters) – Philippine billionaire Enrique Razon’s infrastructure investment arm said on Wednesday it plans to construct what will be the world’s largest solar power facility, joining a growing number of local companies embracing development of renewables.

Unlisted Prime Infrastructure Holdings Inc said the facility will have a capacity of 2,500-3,500 megawatts combined with a 4,000MWh to 4,500MWh battery energy storage system.

The project will be undertaken by Terra Solar Philippines, a unit of Prime Infrastructure’s subsidiary Terra Renewables Holdings Inc, in partnership with Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings Inc.

Further details of the project, including cost and timetable, were not immediately available.

Terra Solar will sell 850 MW of the facility’s output to Manila Electric Company (MER), the country’s largest power utility.

The Southeast Asian country has made a big push for renewable energy projects as it seeks to lessen its dependence particularly on coal in power generation, in line with its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The government aims to increase the share of renewables in the power mix to 35% by 2030, from 21% in 2020, and to 50% by 2040. Coal accounted for nearly 60% of the 2020 mix.

Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corp., which raised 2.7 billion pesos (USD 51 million) from an initial public offering late last year, said it was aiming to build the largest solar farm in Southeast Asia with an initial capacity of 500 MW.

(Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)