Negros switches on
BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occ. – A 10- billion solar power built on a 176-hectare site in Cadiz City, this province, considered as the biggest of its kind in Southeast Asia, has been switched on.
Run by the Helios Solar Energy Corporation, a joint project of Soleq Holdings Philippines, Inc. and Gregorio Araneta, Inc. (GAI), the Cadiz Solar Power Plant is set to provide 132 megawatts (MWs) of renewable energy to the Visayas grid via the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
According to Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon, the Cadiz Solar Power Plant, which is the third of its kind to be built in Negros Occidental, is the seventh largest solar power plant in the world.
The Cadiz Solar Power Plant is expected to produce 188,500 megawatts ( MWs) of solar- generated power annually, or enough to power up an estimated 167,526 households, save 177.7 million liters of water every year in its power plant operations and lower carbon emission by 94,627 tons per year which is equivalent to 2.4 million planted trees.
The 10- billion solar generation facility has started connecting to the grid last February 13, 2016, initially dispatching an average of 30 megawatts ( MW) through the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, said Cadiz City Mayor Patrick Escalante.
“The ( solar) farm’s efficiency rate is 80 percent amid stormy weather. Since it has been on full operations for almost three weeks already, it supplies a huge part of the province’s average power demand of 200 MW,” Escalante informed.
Escalante said the solar farm will eventually increase the city’s annual revenues from real property and business taxes to about 100 million.
During the inauguration ceremonies, Escalante was joined by French Ambassador to the Philippines Thierry Mathou, Negros Occidental Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr., Helios chairman and owner of GAI, Gregorio “Greggy” Araneta III, and representatives of partnercompanies.
Araneta said the “ideally-located $200 million solar farm in Cadiz” is just one of his company’s renewable energy generation projects in the country, including those in Leyte and Ilocos.
Negrense officials envision that in the future, every city or town in the province will have its own solar power plant to supply environmentally-friendly power to local residents.