Solar to put up more microgrid projects

MANILA, Philippines — Solar Philippines is putting up mi­crogrid  projects in 10 more locations this year—with project costs estimated at around $15 million—to provide electricity supply in other off-grid areas across the country, its top official said.

“We will be bringing 24-hour power to a dozen or more towns before the end of this year,” Solar Philippines founder and president Leandro Leviste said.

He said they are eyeing town areas in Cagayan, Isabela, Batangas, Mindoro, Romblon, Masbate, Palawan and Davao.

Leviste said a microgrid project would be completed in Claveria, Masbate and Calayan, Cagayan within the month; in Divilacan and Maconacon, Isabela within 60 days; and the other towns within four to five months.

The microgrid projects, which will include solar, battery and back-up diesel generators, will provide lower rates than what is currently offered under bilateral contracts since these will be subsidized by profits from its utility-scale solar projects.

“We’ve set up a social enterprise arm called Solar Para sa Bayan which will be implementing these money losing projects and seeding that equity from our profits in our solar farms,” Leviste said.

He said the solar component would cost around $1 million per megawatt (MW), $0.3 million per megawatt-hour (MWh) for storage and around the same amount for diesel for a total of around $1.5 million for the whole project.

“We’re losing a decent amount of money initially. But if we can help these people out of poverty, power demand will increase and the towns will become a viable market,” Leviste said.

In March, Solar Philippines completed its first solar-battery microgrid project in Paluan, Mindoro. It has two megawatts (MW) of solar panels, 2 MWh of batteries, and 2 MW of diesel backup, providing reliable power 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.