Photo credit: Robert Viñas/Malacañang Photo Bureau
President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 led the inauguration of the 63.3 megawatt Calatagan Solar Farm in Batangas.
According to an article in Tempo, the solar farm in Calatagan, Batangas is said to be the largest solar farm in Luzon. Reports say that this whole project cost about $120 million. There are over 200,000 panels faced directly on the heat of the sun in order to generate power.
This project has been financed built by Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings, Inc. over the 160-hectare property. The solar farm was expected to generate enough power to supply the whole western Batangas.
“Through projects like these, we are proving to the world that even developing countries such as ours can do their share in combating climate change,” Pres. Aquino said in a statement quoted in an article by Business World Online.
During the inauguration, Pres. Aquino, together with Solar Philippines Power Project Holdings Inc. CEO Leandro Legarda Leviste, pulled the switch lever signaling the opening of the Calatagan Solar Farm, the largest in Luzon and second largest in the Philippines next to the 132-megawatt Cadiz solar plant in Negros Occidental.
“Solar has just begun to realize its potential. It will soon not only be cleaner, but cheaper and more reliable than coal, and in a matter of years, supply the majority of our country’s energy needs,” Leviste’s quoted statement on an article by Riza Olchondra and Nikko Dizon on Inquirer.
“Because of President Aquino’s visionary leadership, we have crossed the point of no return in our country’s shift away from fossil fuel. For many years, the conventional wisdom was that solar was only a marginal share of the energy mix,” the CEO added.
The Calatagan Solar Farm was said to be operating for 30 years and is expected to balance about a million tons of carbon dioxide emissions as byproduct of fossil fuels as compared to what five million trees can do.
Leviste even foresees that the cost of clean power from solar farms could be cheaper that coal.
“When that day comes Mr. President, solar farms will sprout across the country to supply Filipinos with cleaner and cheaper power, decommissioning old fossil fuel burning plants, and we will remember it was under your administration when this all began and all of us here today will be able to look back with nostalgia and tell the story of how pioneering projects like the Calatagan Solar Farm came to be,” he said.
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Sources:
Business World Online
Inquirer
Tempo