August 6, 2018 | 12:07 am
SOLAR PHILIPPINES Power Project
Holdings, Inc. expects to seal a deal for its first solar energy project in
India within the year.
“We are targeting in the neighborhood
of 500 megawatts (MW) of PPAs (power purchase agreements) signed in India
within the next year. . . within the next 12 months,” Solar Philippines
President Leandro L. Leviste told reporters.
“We’re prioritizing countries where
there is a competitive selection process for power suppliers because we believe
that is where we are most competitive,” he said, identifying India as one of
these markets.
Mr. Leviste described India as now
the world’s largest solar market after China, and might even take the lead
because of the slowdown in the feed-in-tariff in China.
The company is participating in some
bid processes this year in India. He said Solar Philippines is “aiming to have
our first contracts signed within this year.”
“I’ll also note that one of the reasons
why we’re bullish on India right is the government is imposing tariffs on
Chinese and Malaysian solar panels,” he said.
He noted solar power rates in India
are in the range of P2 to P3 per kilowatt-hour, although the capacity at stake
is in thousands of megawatts. That range compares to the P2.34 per kWh offered
by his company to distribution utility Manila Electric Co.
“In the last tenders of India, they
awarded more than a thousand megawatts to just one company in one go. So we’re
hopeful that by bringing the cost of solar energy down to India levels in the
Philippines, we’ll be able to convince utilities and policy makers to unlock
that same volume,” he said.
Every year, Mr. Leviste said India
awards around 20,000 MW of solar energy as the country targets to have a solar
capacity of 100,000 MW by 2022.
“By 2030, they’re going to be
announcing a new target, which they say is going to be around 700,000 MW of
solar. Obviously, even if we can just get just 1% of that, that’s very much,
much bigger than what’s in the Philippines,” Mr. Leviste said.
For Solar Philippines, the target
capacity in India is dependent on the number of contracts it signs in the
Philippines as the balance of what has not been taken up of its solar panels
will be filled by the foreign market.
Mr. Leviste said the company’s
500-MW initial target in India could be more “if the development of Philippine
solar projects will not proceed as fast so that we can keep growing the
pipeline beyond the Philippines.”
“That [target] could be less if with
low prices in the Philippines, we can convince offtakers that solar is the way
to go,” he added.
In the Philippines, the company has
around 300 MW of solar energy, either operating or under construction, Mr.
Leviste earlier said. He expects the number to reach 400 MW by yearend.
The company has a manufacturing
plant in Sto. Tomas, Batangas that produced solar panels with an equivalent
capacity of 800 MW in 2017. Its target output this year is 2,000 MW. — Victor
V. Saulon
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