Published January 15, 2017, 10:00 PM
By Myrna M.
Velasco
Chinese firm Xidian Holdings and
yet-unnamed Singaporean consortium will invest up to $500 million for wind and
solar projects that could yield total power capacity of 232 megawatts.
The Chinese company and its partner
had bought into the Delgado Group-led Energy Logics to be the corporate vehicle
of the planned renewable energy projects for siting in Ilocos Norte.
The share purchase agreement with
the Delgados was signed December 16 last year by Xidian Holdings Managing
Director Zhang Peng and Energy Logics President Jose Silvestre Natividad.
“After the successful buy-in, Energy
Logics is now moving forward with the renewable energy projects with target
completion by the middle of 2018,” said Peng.
Their ventures, it was noted, shall
start with the solar and wind service contracts that are already held by Energy
Logics. Project funding shall be a combination of equity and loans sourced
domestically.
These projects will effectively test
the capital markets’ vibe on RE developments post the era of feed-in-tariffs
for solar and wind – given current government stance on such form of subsidies.
The transaction sealed with the
Delgado group had been considered a “strategic” one, and it was a much-awaited
development to bring long-planned RE projects forward to implementation phases.
Peng said the company will start
construction of the renewable energy projects by March this year.
Currently, development works are focused on tapping engineering, procurement
and construction (EPC) contractors.
He added the 232MW RE portfolio that
had been cast for the Philippine market would be part of the total 500MW that
Xidian Holdings has been targeting for completion until year 2020.
Its development terrain though will
not only be limited on solar and wind, but also with hydro and eventually even
for planned conventional energy technology deployments.
The Chinese firm executive said,
“Our projects will not only secure Luzon’s power needs but also help boost the
Philippine economy by creating employment and livelihood opportunities.”
Natividad similarly remarked that
this new group is “very bullish of (its) investments under the Duterte
administration.” In fact, they considered the recently concluded partnership
arrangement as an offshoot of Duterte’s visit in China last year.
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