Aboitiz Power keen on scaling up solar capacity

Cayanga-Bugallon solar farm in Pangasinan —ABOITIZ POWER

BUGALLON, Pangasinan—Aboitiz Power Corp. is actively scouting for areas across the Philippines where it can set up new solar power plants.

Leo Lungay, vice president and general manager for the group’s solar and wind business group, said Aboitiz Renewables Inc. was in “growth mode,” particularly for the solar segment.

“We are exploring anywhere in the Philippines,” he told reporters in a briefing here.

READ: AboitizPower earmarks P78B for expansion this year       

Currently, the firm has close to 532.19 megawatt peak (MWp) solar capacity.

Six solar facilities are already up and running—three in Pangasinan, one in Tarlac, and two in Negros Occidental.

One of its solar facilities here is the 75-MW Cayanga-Bugallon solar farm, situated on a 182-hectare site on top of a mountain.

Two more solar farms in Pangasinan and Olongapo are under construction. With their energization expected before the year ends, the developments would provide a capacity boost of 313.64 MWp—the maximum potential output.

While solar’s share may not look fairly massive, given that the renewable energy producer generates over 1,965 MW of clean electricity from its overall portfolio including hydro, Lungay said solar was the “front-runner … in terms of growth initiative and growth numbers.”

Lungay said the group has already set a target capacity from its planned solar projects, although he declined to disclose figures.

“It will inevitably grow,” he said.

He said the company was working on more renewable energy projects—including wind, floating solar, hydro, geothermal and energy storage technologies—with a combined capacity of 3 gigawatts (GW).

By 2030, Aboitiz Renewables hopes to have 4.6 GW of capacity.

AboitizPower has operations in power generation, power distribution, retail electricity services and distributed energy. Its power generation portfolio includes both renewable and nonrenewable generation plants.