Japanese electronics manufacturer MinebeaMitsumi Inc. aims to cut its power cost by an initial 8 percent starting 2024 as it installs its first solar power farm with 12.8 gigawatt-hour (GWh) capacity.
MinebeaMitsumi Inc. president and general manager for the Philippines Tetsuya Mori said the project would be the largest solar energy generation project among Japanese companies in the country.
“We believe that our solar farm which is generating part of our power consumption contributes to the reduction of brown energy consumption which is exactly in the same direction the Philippine government wants to achieve,” he said in a briefing Thursday.
The project is expected to reduce its brown power consumption estimated at P1 billion annually and displace 6.83 tons of carbon dioxide each year.
The P500-million, ground-based project sits on a 6.8-hectare compound in Danao City, Cebu.
MinebeaMitsui is one of the foreign companies with the highest employment. It used to employ 27,000 workers in all its facilities in Bataan, Batangas and Cebu.
The Danao facility started operating in September 2023 with an initial 300 workers. The company plans to double the capacity of the Naga, Cebu plant to 3,000 in 2024 from 1,800, while the Batangas and Bataan facilities support 1,000 and 3,000 employees, respectively.
Plans to replicate the same initiative at the Bataan and Batangas plants are now being studied and may require the installation of rooftop solar panels.
Mori said company is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050.
Board of Investments (BOI) managing head Ceferino Rodolfo said it is perfect timing for MinebeaMitsui to start the shift to renewable power sources as the BOI recently signed a memorandum circular that incentivizes energy efficiency project (EEPs).
Under BOI MC 2023-006, self-financed EEPs like that of MinebeaMitsui’s are entitled to income tax holiday (ITH) incentive and duty exemption on importation of capital equipment, raw materials, spare parts or accessories.
The ITH incentive will be limited to the prescribed ITH entitlement period under the CREATE Act or until the recovery of 50 percent of its capital investment, excluding cost of land and working capital of the registered EEP, whichever comes first.