Instead of growing crops such as rice or corn, the vast farm in Batangas is now harvesting heat from the sun and generates enough energy to power the whole Western portion of the Batangas province. The 63.3-megawat Calatagan Solar Farm at the convergence of Calatagan, Lian and Balayan towns is now the largest solar facility completed in the Philippines to date.
The solar power plant facility is located just 10 minutes from Calatagan’s popular beach resorts, which will surely attract curiosity among tourists. Passersby often stop to take selfies with the farm for a background. The 160-hectare farm traversing a rolling terrain near the foot of Mount San Piro in Batangas province.
According to reports, Solar Philippines-a renewable energy firm led by the 22-year-old entrepreneur Leandro Leviste-developed, financed and constructed the solar power plant at a cost of $120 million (P5.7 billion).
The solar power plant is comprised of more than 200,000 panels built by 2,500 people, the farm was completed ahead of the other projects backed by one of the country’s fastest growing conglomerates, Solar Philippines together with foreign investors and other companies from the Philippines.
Solar Philippines revealed during an interview with the media that the solar power plant in Batangas started generating power weeks before the March 15 government deadline to build capacity to obtain fiscal incentives under the country’s feed-in-tariff regime.
The solar power plant in Batangas is now considered as the largest solar power plant in the country but that title could be overtaken in the near futre as the construction of a $175-million solar power project, said to be the largest in Southeast Asia, has started in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental. The 100-megawatt (MW) project is being undertaken by Soleq, the solar power arm of the Equis Funds Group, Asia’s largest energy and infrastructure specialist.
