SMC, Citicore to break ground on solar venture this month

MANILA, Philippines — Saavedra-led Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC) and tycoon Ramon Ang’s San Miguel Global Power (SMGP) are set to kick off construction on their landmark solar project this month.

CREC president and CEO Oliver Tan confirmed this development during a recent event hosted by the Philippine Stock Exchange.

“We are scheduled to break ground on our solar venture with San Miguel. We will break ground within the month,” he said.

Tan was referring to the planned development of a 153.5-megawatt (MW) solar farm in Mariveles, Bataan, a joint venture between CREC and SMGP unit San Miguel Global Light and Power Corp.

Currently, SMGLP and CREC own the project under a 51:49 split, but the latter is set to raise its stake to 50 percent during the construction stage.

The solar project, which marks the first-ever partnership between the two firms, is expected to add 76.75 MW of new capacity to SMGLP and CREC’s generation portfolio.

SMGLP parent SMGP is the energy arm of diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp., while CREC is a pure-play energy platform under the Saavedra-led Megawide Group.

For 2025, CREC intends to roll out one gigawatt of new solar projects across the country in line with its ambitious goal of achieving five GW of renewables capacity by 2028.

In terms of funding, Tan said CREC is currently in talks with a syndicate of banks for project financing, but did not provide further details.