By Lenie Lectura
CITICORE Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings, a joint venture between Megawide Construction Corp.’s sister firm Citicore Power and Solar Philippines, will meet the target completion of the 70-megawatt (MW) solar-power project in Calatagan, Batangas, by the end of the year.
“[The] Calatagan project is under construction. Everything has been ordered and will be onsite no later than the fourth quarter of this year, allowing us to commission the project by the end of the year, well in advance of all other projects racing for the feed-in-tariff [FiT],” said Leandro Leviste, Solar Philippines president.
The company has to finish the project soon so it can avail the P8.69-per-kilowatt-hour (kWh) FiT under the second wave of solar-installation target by March 2016.
It can be recalled that the Department of Energy (DOE) has approved an increase in the solar-installation target to 500 MW from 50 MW at an approved a FiT rate of P8.69 per kWh for the additional 450-MW installation target for solar projects. “We’re looking at in excess of 500 MW being installed but many of these projects targeting a March completion date. So we believe that to be a slam dunk to make the feed-in-tariff, you need to be finished by end of this year,” Leviste said.
In all, Citicore Solar wants to complete 250 MW of solar projects by 2016 at an estimated cost of $2.4 million to $2.5 million per MW.
The 250 MW solar projects will create 10,000 construction jobs, alleviate the power shortage, and displace polluting fossil fuels.
