Philip Morris Fortune Tobacco Corp. (PMFTC) opened its $3.1-million solar-power plant inside 25-hectare manufacturing facility at the First Philippine Industrial Park in Tanuan City, Batangas.
PMFTC, a joint venture between Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. and Fortune Tobacco Corp., partnered with Spectrum in installing the 2.5 MW solar energy plant, making PMFTC the third affiliate of Philip Morris International (PMI) in Asia to have its own solar power plant, next to Pakistan and Indonesia.
Spectrum is the renewable energy arm of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco). The facility is the company’s single largest project and is said to be capable of covering 10 percent of the needs of factory.
“This is just the first phase and we are watching. We want to see, test how the production works. But it’s really easy to expand. We have space to do it. We want to make sure we invested in the right one,” PMI manager for environment Carlos Sanchez was quoted as saying in a BusinessMirror report.
“It depends on PMFTC. I’m very confident the plant will achieve and even surpass the expected results. I think there’s room for expansion. This is a very large plant,” added Robert Marlon Pereja, Spectrum commercial services head, in the same report.
The solar plant can endure a Category 5 typhoon and magnitude 8 earthquake.
“The new solar-energy project also hopes to achieve PMI’s target of at least 40-percent reduction in its carbon footprint across its whole value chain by 2030. With the Batangas factory now partially powered by solar energy, the initiative is expected to reduce more than 2,000 tons of CO2 annually,” PMFTC operations director Joao Brigido said.
The facility was built in support of the Philippine government’s Renewable Energy Roadmap 2017-2040 that aims to have at least 20,000 MW of renewable energy sources by 2040.
PMFTC external affairs director Varinia Elero-Tinga said the company hopes they will contribute to the Philippines’ commitment to decrease carbon emissions by 70 percent by 2030 by having this project.
