RLC to expand solar power production

MANILA, Philippines — Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC), the property developer of Gokongwei-led JG Summit Holdings, will expand its solar power production to 19 million kilowatt-hours from 15 million kWh at present.

This is in line with the company’s goal to become the dominant renewable energy generator among Philippine property developers.

To attain its goal, RLC will install additional rooftop solar panels in more of its malls nationwide.

At present, the company has almost 48,000 solar panels in its 11 malls around the country.

Solar panels allow RLC to produce over 15 million-kilowatt hours (kWh) of clean energy annually.

RLC president Frederick Go said the move is part of the group’s sustainability efforts.

“As one of the biggest consumers of electricity, having our own renewable source of clean energy allows us to reduce our carbon footprint and do our share in protecting the environment by using less electricity produced by the burning of fossil fuels,” he said.

The 15 million kWh produced by RLC’s rooftop solar panels would have resulted in the release of 10,674 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere if produced by thermal power plants. This would require the planting of over 276,000 trees to absorb this greenhouse gas.

In addition to this, RLC will install 10,000 solar panels with a capacity of almost four million kWh.

This will boost RLC’s capacity to almost 58,000 solar panels with a total solar power yield of over 19,000 million kWh per year. This in turn, would supply power to 1,792 new homes for one year and is seen eliminating over 13,000 tons of carbon dioxide.

This would save the environment from 2,784 metric tons of carbon dioxide, which would require the planning of over 72,000 trees, RLC said.

These new solar panels will be installed in RLC’s Robinsons Cybergate Cebu (65,236 kWh), Robinsons Galleria Cebu (1.31 million kWh), Robinsons Place Tagum (1.96 million kWh), and Robinsons Place Palawan (expansion of 3.96 million kWh).