SP NEW Energy Corp. (SPNEC) said Monday it broke ground on the “world’s largest solar project” in Central Luzon.
SPNEC said in a statement its 100-percent owned subsidiary Terra Solar Philippines Inc. will own and operate the project.
It said site-clearing work started which would cover about 3,500 hectares in Nueva Ecija and Bulacan provinces, with the first phase of the project scheduled to be delivered by the first quarter of 2026.
SPNEC said it is expediting its site-clearing activities ahead of the construction of the project’s interconnection facilities with the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines and the installation of over 5 million solar panels to meet its construction timeline.
The company secured over 3,000 hectares for the site, most of which were converted into industrial use. The Terra Solar project is centered around pasturelands in the town of Peñaranda.
SPNEC said it already completed the solar panel installation for the first of its Nueva Ecija solar developments in the same town.
The company said accelerated work on the project followed the completion of the P15.9-billion investment by MGen Renewable Energy Inc. (MGreen) in SPNEC on Dec. 27, 2023.
SPNEC said it would use the proceeds to fund the construction of 3,500 megawatts of solar panels and 4,000 megawatt-hours of battery project estimated to cost P200 billion.
The project is expected generate over 5 billion kWh annually, or an estimated 5 percent of the total volume of the power grid and 12 percent of its total demand.
SPNEC said its project would be larger than India’s Bhadla Solar Park and China’s Golmud Solar Park, currently the world’s largest solar farms at over 2.2 GW.
It would also exceed the capacity of all grid-connected solar projects operating in the Philippines combined at over 1.5 GW, based on the Department of Energy’s figures as of 2023.
SPNEC said MGreen’s investment would help speed up the execution of its projects. MGreen is the renewable energy development arm of Meralco Powergen Corp., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Manila Electric Co., the country’s largest private sector electric distribution utility company.