The Philippines is slowly getting involved in solar power, as the SM City North EDSA switch on the power of the 1.5 Mega Watts solar power facility at the rooftop of SM’s Multi-level car park. The 5,760 solar panels are installed by one of the country’s ambitious company, the Solar Philippines, which is led by a 21-year-old Leandro Leviste.
During the switch-on ceremony held at the mall, they invited some of the country’s top ranked officials to witness the event including President Benigno Simeon Aquino III, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla, and House Speaker Sonny Belmonte.
Also present during the ceremony is SM Prime President Hans Sy and the 21-year-old head of Solar Philippines, Leandro Leviste. The SM North EDSA Solar Powered Mall could generate up to 1.5 MW power, according to Solar Philippines.
The solar project in SM North EDSA, is the company’s second solar power project after they installed a 1.1-MW project at its SM City Xiamen Mall in China. According to SM Supermalls President Annie Garcia, the 1.5-MW of electricity generated by the solar panels can power 16,000 light fixtures, 59 escalators, and 20 elevators of SM North EDSA at the same time.
The solar project by SM installed by Solar Philippines, can generate up to P2 million in savings every month for SM North. The company also noted that SM has two rooftop solar power projects right now, one in SM Dasmarinas and the other one is at SM Mall of Asia in Paranaque.
The SM Dasmarinas solar project will have a capacity of 0.8 MW using 3,740 solar panels and is expected to be operational by May 2015. The SM Mall of Asia solar projects will have 10,500 solar panels which will generate 2.7 MW, and expected to go online by the end of 2015.
