Ayala Group’s renewable energy arm AC Energy has plans to expand their solar portfolio by 2000 MW in certain locations across the Luzon grid.
“In the near term, we’re looking at construction in the next 12-18 months somewhere between 100-200 MW that we can start just to get the ball rolling,” AC Energy President and CEO Eric T. Francia told Manila Bulletin reporters.
He added that the company will focus on adding smaller capacities, particularly solar installations, before moving forward with wind farm developments in the pipeline.
“That’s pure RE that we’re looking at in the near term where we hope to break ground soon – that’s in the Philippines. Over a 100 MW is what we use to start construction,” Francia stressed.
The location of the installations will be in different sites in the Luzon grid with a capacity ranging from 50 to 100 MW per farm.
“We’ll do it on a portfolio basis… there are some grid constraints also that’s why we need to spread out the renewable capacities,” he said, adding that the specific project siting will come to view “when we’re able.”
The company collected US$410 million for the tap facility.
“Part of equity financing will come from the bonds and we are also open to some project finance or we can do equity financing also. We have the flexibility,” he emphasized.
“Definitely, a lot of our RE projects will be funded through the green bonds,” he added.
Ayala has been expanding its investments to Vietnam and Indonesia, as well.
Vietnam is currently implementing the feed-in-tariff (FIT) incentive system, which is considered a reward to RE investors. Whereas, the Philippines has recently put a halt in the FIT scheme system.
