The Philippines is working on the world’s largest solar photovoltaic plus battery storage project, and construction of the project began just a few weeks ago. Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. participated in the groundbreaking ceremony for the Meralco Terra Solar project. The project will have a solar power capacity of 3,500 megawatts (MW) and a battery storage system with an energy storage capacity of 4,500 megawatt-hours (MWh).
The project is supposed to produce electricity for more than 2 million households in the Philippines once it is fully operational in about 3 years (in 2027). It is also expected to create more than 10,000 jobs, mostly during the construction phase.
“Over the next decade, it is poised to generate nearly P23 billion in financial benefits—resources that will pave the way for even greater progress. The impacts and advancements of this project are amongst those that we envisioned when I spoke about energy in my recent State of the Nation Address,” President Marcos said.
“This project will energize over 2 million households and reduce carbon emissions by more than 4.3 million metric tons annually,” President Marcos stated. “To put that into perspective, it is equivalent of removing 3 million gasoline-powered cars from our roads — decisive action towards helping address global warming and climate change.”
Importantly, the project also provides a predictable, stable, resilient supply of electricity at a time when the country has growing electricity demand. “We are working towards a steady and reliable power supply that will meet the demands of today and continuously fuel our ambitions for tomorrow. Projects like Terra Solar bring us closer to that vision,” he added.
The Meralco Terra Solar Project is going to require PhP200 billion ($3.42 billion) of investment in total.
For those familiar with the country, here are more details on the project: “The project spans 3,500 hectares across Nueva Ecija and Bulacan. Initially, it will be connected to the existing 500-kiloVolt (kV) Nagsaag-San Jose Transmission Line and later linked to the upcoming 500-kV Nagsaag-Marilao Transmission Line.”
To close, also note that President Marcos ended his presentation at the groundbreaking with an appeal to the private sector and government agencies to build more such projects elsewhere in the Philippines. Companies involved in this project include Meralco, Terra Solar Philippines, Solar Philippines New Energy Corporation, MGen Renewable Energy Inc, and others.
Zachary Shahan, /cleantechnica.com
