Solar Philippines on track to build world’s largest solar farm

MANILA, Philippines — Solar Philippines has gained significant headway in its plans to develop the world’s largest solar farm.

Solar Philippines said unit SP New Energy Corp. (SPNEC) has secured over 2,000 hectares of landbank for its massive solar farm project.

At over 2,000 hectares, Solar Philippines said the properties it secured could fit a project that would exceed the capacity of India’s Bhadla Solar Farm, currently the world’s largest solar farm at over 2.2 gigawatts (GW).

The project could also surpass the capacity of the total grid-connected solar operating in the Philippines according to the Department of Energy’s latest figures as of August

“Since our stock rights offering (SRO), we have prioritized the execution of the project that we see has the highest value. After we perfect the documentation for these hundreds of parcels and then conversion, this land would be ready for a solar project,” Solar Philippines founder Leandro Leviste said.

“Our focus now is to realize the value from this, and we will provide further updates at the appropriate time,” Leviste said.

Last September, SPNEC completed its P2.8-billion SRO which was fully subscribed by its public shareholders in the first and second rounds.

SPNEC’s SRO prospectus indicated that proceeds would be used to acquire land in Nueva Ecija and Bulacan as well as for its projects.

One of these projects is Terra Solar Philippines Inc., a joint venture project of Solar Philippines that signed a power supply agreement (PSA) with Meralco last Oct. 24.

Under the PSA, Terra Solar would supply 850 megawatts of mid-merit for around 12 hours per day from a planned 3.5 GW solar, 4.5 GWh battery project in Nueva Ecija and Bulacan.