Solar group expects 300 MW in new projects to materialize

At least 300 megawatts of solar power projects will materialize in the next three years on the heels of the upcoming feed-in tariff rate, the Philippine Solar Power Alliance said Monday. There will be an aggressive installation of solar plants in the country immediately after the government releases the feed-in tariff for renewable energy, the group said. “Owing to the high sun irradiation found in a tropical country like the Philippines, the targeted installation throughout the country in the next three years is projected at about 300 MW. This number of solar plants, as well as the presence of the world’s largest solar panel manufacturer in Laguna, will make the Philippines a solar hub in Southeast Asia," Philippine Solar convenor Tetchi Capellan said. The declining cost of solar panels, with the introduction of the feed-in tariff in Europe, has pushed the price of solar projects down, the alliance said. As soon as the same incentive is offered to solar energy producers in the Philippines, solar power plants will expand from 1MW to 50MW in less than a year, the group said. Feed-in tariff is a fixed payment to renewable energy providers as an incentive to reduce the country’s dependence on imported fossil fuel. The concept originated from the European Union 10 years ago, and was aggressively used by European Parliament to increase the share of renewable energy to the total energy portfolio of the European electricity market. A feed-in tariff system is likewise being introduced in the Philippines under the Renewable Energy Law to encourage private sector participation in the development of solar power. Solar energy producers have submitted to the national government a number of representative projects that will serve as basis for calculating the feed-in tariff for solar energy systems. Philippine Solar assembled the various stakeholders in the sector to secure an industry-wide production cost estimates for generating and distributing solar power in the country. The group is composed of solar panel manufacturers, project developers, off-grid solar energy integrators, utility-scale solar electricity providers, and electricity distributors. Ramon Abaya of Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company, which owns and operates the only standing 1MW solar plant in Cagayan de Oro, said that “The installed cost for a utility-scale ground-mounted 30MW solar plant in the Philippines is about P22.56 per kilowatt-hour. The cost becomes a bit more expensive for roof-top mounted, or building-integrated solar power plants." Abaya is also a convenor of the alliance. Philippine Solar said that the production of solar panels is the fastest rising technology worldwide, growing 48 percent a year, while the cost of putting up a solar power plant had significantly in the last 8 years. —VS, GMANews. TV