AboitizPower, a wholly owned subsidiary of Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. (AEV), is planning a solar power facility in the Visayas (Philippines) with an expected capacity between 40 and 100 megawatts (MW).
AboitizPower has partnered with SunEdison, a leading solar technology manufacturer and provider of solar energy services, for the solar project.
Manuel Lozano, chief financial officer (CFO) of AboitizPower, said the companies plan to begin construction of the solar power plant this year. He said that if negotiations proceed, they might be able to get the project running also this year.
The reason for the rapid completion of the project is that it could meet the March 2016 deadline for feed-in-tariff (FIT) allocations for solar. Mr. Lozano said ideally they want to start by July to meet the March 2016 deadline.
As announced last November, Aboitiz and the US renewables major entered into a partnership to install up to 300 MW of utility-scale solar capacity in the Philippines over a three-year period starting in 2015. The target was later reduced to just 100 MW.