Aboitiz Renewables, Inc. Solar Renewable Energy Partnerships Sustainability

AboitizPower to build new solar farms in Negros and Zambales

August 17, 2023

Aboitiz Power Corporation (AboitizPower) subsidiary Aboitiz Renewables Inc. (ARI) will add to the company’s growing portfolio of renewable energy with new solar facilities in Negros Occidental and Zambales.

“We are looking to begin the construction of our Calatrava Solar and Olongapo Solar projects this year on the way to achieving our growth strategy of providing an additional 3,700 megawatts of renewable energy by the next decade,” said AboitizPower President and CEO Emmanuel Rubio.

ARI will build the 172.7 MWp solar power project in Calatrava, Negros Occidental. It is expected to export electricity to the grid via the Calatrava substation as soon as December 2024.

Construction will commence in September within an approximate land area of 143 hectares. It will be undertaken by SUMEC Complete Equipment and Engineering Co., Ltd., the same firm currently completing the 159 MWp Laoag Solar Project of PV Sinag, Inc.

Meanwhile, ARI will also build the 211 MWp solar power project in Olongapo, Zambales, which is by far its largest solar project. Construction of the project will also start in September and will be commercially operational by September 2025 to provide electricity through the Castillejos substation.

Olongapo Solar will be built within an approximate land area of 196 hectares, to be undertaken by a joint venture between Guangdong Electric Power Design Institute Co., LTD. (GEDI) and parent company China Energy International Group Co., Ltd.

This brings the total number of AboitizPower solar projects to five; to also include San Carlos Sun Power Inc. in Negros Occidental and the Laoag and Cayanga solar projects in Pangasinan.

“While we have very humble intentions, we are aligned with the ambitious goal to help the country usher in a just and balanced energy transition. Our customers want clean, affordable and dependable energy, and we want to deliver that,” said Aboitiz Renewables Inc. President and CEO James Villaroman. “Cost competitive renewable energy is very important. Our country desperately needs energy security — with the harnessing of indigenous sources of energy, among the strategies — and we aim to strongly support this.”

Together with its partners, AboitizPower currently has the largest and most diversified renewable energy platform in the Philippines in terms of installed capacity under its operational control. At present, the company has a pipeline of close to 1,000 megawatts of disclosed renewable energy projects, including developing wind and solar farms throughout the country, as well as geothermal. In the next ten years, it targets having a total of 4,600 megawatts of clean energy and a 50:50 balance between its renewable and thermal capacities.