Aquino to lead opening of solar plant, bridge in Negros

Sunstar Bacolod
By Teresa Ellera
Tuesday, May 13, 2014


GOVERNOR Alfredo Marañon Jr. confirmed on Monday that President Benigno Aquino III will visit Negros Occidental on May 15 to inaugurate two mega projects in San Carlos City and Sagay City.

The governor said the advance party from the Presidential Management Staff (PMS) has already arrived in the province.

The President will arrive in San Carlos City Thursday morning to inaugurate the 22-megawatt solar power plant of San Carlos Solar Energy Inc. (SaCaSol).

After lunch, he will proceed to Sagay for the opening of the P335-million Sagay City diversion road and the new Himogaan Bridge.

The diversion road will cut travel time by 20 minutes from Hacienda Maya to the new Himogaan Bridge, the governor said.

The old Himogaan Bridge will be retained since light vehicles can still pass through it. The bridge was built in 1935 and was bombed by the Japanese soldiers during the World War II.

Meanwhile, the solar farm, the largest to be put up in the country to date, is located in the San Carlos City economic zone. The project is a joint venture of Bronzeoak and European investment fund ThomasLloyd Group.

The facility is expected to help improve the Visayas grid's power supply especially amid projections of a possible prolonged dry spell in the coming weeks.

The SaCaSol consortium invested P1.9 billion to develop the solar plant which has 88,000 photovoltaic panels.

SaCaSol will initially generate 13 megawatts of power within the week and another nine MW the following week. source

Published in the Sun.Star Bacolod newspaper on May 13, 2014.