Solar solutions firm pours P500 million for Philippines expansion

CEBU, Philippines —  New York-based solar panel provider UGE Philippines will be investing P500 million to expand its operations in Cebu and in the whole country in the next two years capitalizing on the corporate market’s response to renewable energy sources.

Tyler Adkins, President of UGE Philippines, said the company entered the Philippine market in 2015 and one of its largest clients in Cebu is Nature’s Spring Water Philippines.

UGE installed NSWP's first solar power system at their main facility in Cebu, which saved the company on electricity costs by 70 percent. It also installed a similar system in its other facilities around the country.

In a press conference, to formally appoint sport's leader and icon Ramon Fernandez as one the UGE's board of directors, Adkins said the Philippines has huge potential for solar power system because of its favorable weather, where the country gets an average of 5.5 hours of sun exposure a day.

Besides, more huge power consumers, like hospitals, manufacturing firms, shopping malls, universities, hotels, cold-storage warehouses, food processing companies, among others are now more receptive to source their power sources from renewable technologies, such as solar panels.

The solar power revolution and the high awareness of consumers in switching to cleaner and cheaper energy sources prompted the company to expand its operations here.

UGE Philippines also offers no-cash solutions for companies, making the installation of solar panels easier and not a capital intensive burden.

It offers financing solutions to meet the needs of every project. Flexible options include; turn-key package, solar loan and solar lease.

According to Fernandez, the cost of solar panel system installations has dropped significantly in the last few years by 90 percent, making company's get its return-of-investments in terms of savings in at least four to six years.

Meanwhile, the Philippine government has been encouraging electricity consumers to source power from alternative, renewable sources like solar system, through the net-metering scheme.

The net-metering scheme is the first non-fiscal incentive mechanism under the Renewable Energy (RE) Act of 2008. It is a billing mechanism that credits solar energy system owners for the electricity they add to the grid.

The scheme allows house owners and commercial establishments to install solar photovoltaic panels and partly satisfy their electricity demand. The excess power that they generate is delivered to the utility and used to offset the customer’s electricity consumption.

The basic concept of the net metering is that if the consumption exceeds generation, customers pay for net per kilowatt-hour consumed.

In Cebu, the Visayan Electric Company (VECO) is encouraging consumers to avail of this scheme, although VECO, as a business will not be getting anything from this — profitably.

UGE delivers immediate savings to businesses through the low cost of solar energy. It helps commercial and industrial clients become more competitive by providing distributed renewable energy solutions at no upfront cost, generating long term economic and environmental returns.

"With over 360 MW of global experience, we work daily to power a more sustainable world," Adkins added.