By EUGENE ADIONG
SAN CARLOS City — San Carlos Solar Energy, Inc. (SACASOL) said it plans to put up five more solar power plants in Negros Island within a year, following yesterday’s launching here of its solar plant, the country’s first commercial-scale solar facility.
In fact, SACASOL will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for another solar power facility in Brgy. Cubay, La Carlota City, today.
Aside from expanding their San Carlos facility, SACASOL chairman Jose Ma. Zabaleta said, they want to build solar power plants in Manapla, Negros Occidental, and Bais City, Negros Oriental.
Once all operational, these solar plants can work like “a 100-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant,” Zabaleta said.
Majority of existing power plants use bunker oil or coal as fuel, he said. “They charge P24–P25 (for generation charge), but if they use power from our solar power plants, consumers will pay less,” said the SACASOL chairman.
Built on 35 hectares of poor saline soil, the solar facility in this city has a total capacity of 22 megawatt-peak (MWp).
The facility’s Phase I (13 MWp) has already started selling power to the Visayas grid on Tuesday; Phase II (9 MWp) is expected to be operational by the end of the month. It will supply the grid’s daytime peak power.
On the other hand, the solar facility planned to be built in La Carlota has a capacity of 18 MW.
Zabaleta revealed that the total investment needed to complete all of SACASOL’s solar power plants is about $10 million.
He said SACASOL’s solar plant aims to stabilize the power supply in this city, which “is suffering from low voltage and brownouts.”
SACASOL said the solar power plant boasts of generating clean, green and sustainable energy, and using environment-friendly technology in generating power.
It will also help mitigate greenhouse gas emissions — specifically displace 17,000 tons of carbon dioxide — from fossil fuel burning during power generation, it said./PN
