Basic Energy Corp. president and COO Oscar de Venecia Jr. said during the company’s stakeholders meeting that it is looking into developing solar energy plants to gain short-term revenues as their geothermal sites conduct drilling projects.
De Venecia said the company is assessing three locations for a solar farm – Bolinao and San Fabian in Pangasinan, and Labason in Zamboanga del Norte – which are properties they already own.
“All of our projects right now are long term in gestation period. We’re looking at projects that can bring immediate impact to the bottomline of the company,” he said.
The Bolinao site has a potential for a 27-megawatt (MW) solar project, 15 MW in San Fabian and 14 MW in Labason. In March, the company partnered with solar developer nv vogt Singapore Pte. Ltd. to assess the feasibility of a solar project in one of the properties.
De Venecia said the company is still “transitioning from oil and gas to power generation.”
“We decided transition was best done through geothermal. Case in point, geothermal takes time. Development has exploration, very different from solar. We have to find the resource first. It takes time before it becomes fruition,” he said.
Basic Energy currently has five geothermal service contracts and is looking for potential partners due to the costs entailed in developing the plants.