by Myrna Velasco June 12, 2016
(updated)
The power group of Alsons
Consolidated Resources, Inc. (ACR) is casting solar in the conglomerate’s organic
growth, but the deeper decision on business model they have been weighing is
whether or not energy will be more beneficial than food in the utilization of
their available properties.
According to ACR chairman Tomas I.
Alcantara, a sizeable portion of their available land is “being used by cattle
and bananas… so the
Decision we have to make: Which will
produce bigger returns, banana, cattle or solar?”
He explained that solar investments
would generally be a “real estate play,” while noting that this is an
investment sphere “we have been looking at.”
Alcantara said their preferred site
for solar farm would be in General Santos. “We believe that it is the best
location for a solar plant in the Philippines because the records show that
General Santos has the most sunlight days in the whole Philippines,” he added.
He stressed “if you have a solar
plant in Mindanao versus let us say in Ilocos, you have 2.0 percent efficiency
higher in General Santos.”
The company’s plan will be to start
with 20 megawatts; but this will be a portfolio expanding over time.
The Alcantara property that could be
utilized partly for solar farm developments had been placed at about a thousand
hectares.
Their initial foray into renewable
energy will be on run-of-river hydropower project via the planned 15 to
17-megawatt Siguil plant in Sarangani province. The off-take (purchase) of that
plant’s capacity will be bilaterally contracted, according to company
officials.
The higher end target of the group
for hydro capacity will be for 180MW – with the next 40MW to be installed in
Bago in Negros Occidental; while the rest will be sited in various areas in
Mindanao grid.
For solar, the overall targeted
portfolio will be for 150 megawatts but installations will be done in phases
according to market demand.
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