Cepalco Plans $50 Million Investment in Four Solar Power Plants in Philippines

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company Incorporated (Cepalco) (Cagayan de Oro City, Philippines), a local power-generating company in the Philippines, has announced that it will invest up to $50 million to construct four solar power-generating facilities in the Misamis Oriental province of Philippines.

The company plans to build four solar plants, each with a generating capacity of 5 megawatts (MW), in the First Cagayan de Oro Business Park at Kirahon in Vilaneuva. However, according to the Philippines Department of Energy, Cepalco has yet to complete the required applications for permits and financial closing,

Cepalco plans to commence construction on the first plant in 2015 and complete one solar plant every five years, with completion of the project planned for 2030. The complex of four solar plants will be constructed on a 30-hectare site at the Business Park, which is about 30 kilometers to the east of Cagayan de Oro City.

Cepalco began operations as far back as 1952, with a modest 5-MW power generating capacity. In 2004, the company developed the world's first (and at the time, the world's largest) grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant, consisting of 6,500 separate PV panels on a two-hectare site, generating 1 MW.

The plant is unique in that it operates in combination with the 7-MW run-of-the-river Bubunawan hydroelectric generating plant and, according to the Philippines Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), saves the emission of up to 24,000 tons of carbon-based compounds.

In addition to the Bubunawan hydro plant, Cepalco is involved in several other renewable energy projects, including proposed hydroelectric plants on the Cabulig River (including a proposed 8-MW plant) and a possible 10-MW hydro plant on the Culaman River. A second hydro plant is proposed below the existing Bubunawan plant, which has an indicated potential generating capacity of 20 MW.

Cepalco is also engaged in several waste-to-energy projects, including biomass and landfill gas-to-energy conversion within its operating area, which is predominantly agricultural.

The Philippines relies heavily on coal-fired power plants, with 68% of its total electricity having come from thermal power plants in 2005. In April 2010, the country approved the National Framework Strategy on Climate Change, which was aimed at promoting investments in various forms of renewable energy--including solar, wind, hydro, ocean, biomass and geothermal energy--and to double the current renewable energy capacity from 4,500 MW to 9,000 MW in the next 20 years.

The Department of Energy, under the medium-term Renewable Energy Policy Framework, is aiming to develop more than 4,000 MW of additional renewable energy, of which 1,200 MW are expected to come from geothermal sources.

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