Power company to set up 20-hectare solar farm in Misamis Oriental

CAGAYAN DE ORO City, July 9, 2011—The Philippine subsidiary of the Toronto-based Canadian renewable energy company Enerasia Renewable Corp. is now on the lookout for a 20-hectare land in the city or Misamis Oriental province for its solar farm
project.

If plans pushes through, this will be the second solar farm in the city and in the entire Philippines, said Jose P. Leviste Jr., chairman of Constellation Energy Corp., during a press conference here.

The first and only solar farm in the country is the 1-megawatt solar photovoltaic plant owned and operated by the Cagayan Electric Power and Light Co. (CEPALCO). It was commissioned in 2004 and sits on a 2-hectare property in Barangay Indahag, this city. This solar farm generates electricity without any fuel, thus sparing the environment about 24,000 tons of carbon compound emissions a month.

Leviste, who is also chairman of Enerasia and former chairman, president & CEO of Mirant Philippines, said that Constellation is “very interested in putting up a solar farm here.”

“We are looking for a 20-hectare land here in the city or in Misamis Oriental that is not used for agricultural purposes and with a maximum sloping angle of 3 degrees,” he told select journalists following the launching of Primavera Residences, the first environment-friendly condominium high-rise in Northern Mindanao last Tuesday. Primavera is the pet project in the city of ItalPinas, of which Leviste is also the chairman.

Leviste said the potential of solar energy in the Philippines is very good. But he lamented that so far, this renewable and very cheap source of energy largely remained untapped in the country.

“Our solar potential is very good, especially here in Northern Mindanao, which is very conducive to solar energy. We as a people are blessed because we have the sunlight all year round,” he stressed.

With the rising incidents of climate change-induced calamities, exacerbated by the continued and unabated use of fossil fuels like coal and oil which release greenhouse gases (GHGs), the Philippines has no other recourse but to go into renewable energy sources, he said.

“Life has to be sustainable,” he added.

Constellation’s planned 20-hectare solar farm here or in Misamis Oriental, if realized, will generate 20 MWs of electricity.

Constellation Energy Corp. is now involved in at least seven renewable energy projects all over the Philippines. These projects included a geothermal power project in Biliran Leyte; a wind power venture in Panglao, Bohol; and five hydropower projects in the Visayas and Mindanao.

Leviste also revealed that he had convinced Italian architect Romulo Nati, president and CEO of ItalPinas, a real estate company involved in investment, development, architectural designs of eco-friendly buildings, to explore the potential of a partnership with CEPALCO in harnessing the power of renewable energy sources in its future building designs. (Bong D. Fabe)