Published December
13, 2016, 10:01 PM By Madelaine B. Miraflor
The Alcantara power
group will start with its solar investments on a take-off pitch of 20 megawatts
due for implementation next year.
As divulged by
Antonio Miguel B. Alcantara, corporate planning officer of the Power Business
Unit of Alsons Consolidated Resources, Inc., that preliminary venture would be
up for expansion by another 20 megawatts.
He said the first
20MW phase will require capital outlay of $30 million, based on the company’s
estimates.
“Solar will be the
focus next year…we are still getting PPA (power purchase agreement) with local
cooperatives,” he said.
The planned
sunlight-harnessed renewable energy facilities will be sited in General Santos
City; wherein irradiation had been assessed to be of the best quality for solar
farm developments.
The Alcantara group
previously noted that its higher-end target of solar installations would be up
to 150 megawatts – but developments shall be spread over several years.
Given the scale of
solar plants’ land use, the company noted that part of its serious
consideration had been on the impact of such ventures to the food segment of
its business – especially so since massive scale of their properties are used
for banana plantation and cattle-raising.
Alsons noted this is
the best time for them to go into solar given the precipitous slide in the cost
of the technology – that ventures would no longer need subsidies or
feed-in-tariffs to thrive.
In fact, the
Department of Energy under Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi’s leadership has already
given a “death blow” to the industry’s bid for third round of FIT incentives.
For project sponsors
and developers, their options shall be bilateral contracts with capacity buyers
(off-takers) or trading their capacity at the Wholesale Electricity Spot
Market.
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