SOLAR Philippines on Thursday said it will soon venture into the real estate sector to take the company to the next level.
“First, we are starting a new company to focus on investments in provincial real-estate, while enabling Solar Philippines to focus on developing projects that are symbiotic with this real estate,” company founder Leandro Leviste said in a statement.
His announcement came after the Department of Energy’s declaration of a moratorium on new coal projects. Leviste said this signals the company’s new strategic direction.
“Second, we are bringing onboard professional management to lead Solar Philippines in this new chapter, as a step towards becoming a more widely-held public company.
Third, we now strongly believe in the value of partnerships. While we once focused on competing with others in the power industry, we are now collaborating with several local and foreign partners, harnessing their strengths across all our projects to take solar in the Philippines to the next level,” he said.
Leviste did not provide details.
The company, he added, is optimistic with these changes set to happen soon. “We are more optimistic than ever that we and our partners can deliver a portfolio of projects that will make the Philippines a leader in the global energy transition.”
Solar Philippines has been increasingly focused on forging partnerships in recent years.
In December 2018, it partnered with Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) for its 63 megawatt (MW) Solar Farm in Batangas. This is KEPCO’s first renewable energy project in Southeast Asia.
In June 2020, Solar Philippines inked a partnership with the Razon Group’s Prime Infra to develop a pipeline of projects, representing the largest solar joint venture established in the country. This includes completing the Tarlac 200 MW Solar Farm, the country’s largest solar project to date.
According to the Department of Energy website, Solar Philippines is developing projects with a total capacity of over 10 gigawatts in over a dozen provinces. The company has indicated that it will make further disclosures on these developments at the appropriate time.