Cepalco to undertake P260-M solar project

The Cagayan Electric Power and Light Co. will undertake a P260-million solar power project this year, Cepalco chairman Ramon C. Abaya said yesterday.

Abaya said they are now in the process of bidding out the project which is estimated to cost anywhere from $5 million to $5.5 million.

Possible funding sources include the Global Environmental Facility through its executing agency, the World Bank, and soft loans from foreign financing institutions.

Abaya said, the proposed project will also be financed partly by internally-generated funds.

He said they will determine the funding scheme once they identify the winning bidder.

"We will see if we could avail of soft loans from the winning bidder’s government."

For instance, he said there is a Germany-based company interested to bid for the project. "We can tap their country for a soft loan," he said.

So far, there are 10 bidders for the project. They are mostly polyvinyl manufacturing firms from different parts of the world.

Abaya said they expect the bidding results to be finalized in the next two months or by end May this year. It will take at least nine months to finish the project.

According to Abaya, they will undertake the said solar project in tandem with the company’s mini-hydro electric power generation project. The solar plant, which will have a capacity of one megawatt or 1,000 kilowatts, will be the largest project of its kind to be undertaken in a developing country.

Experts agree that prospects for new and renewable sources of energy in the country are bright. The energy department said energy to be sourced from the sun, wind, ocean waves and biomass could produce electricity equivalent to 72.1 million barrels of fuel oil in 2000 and 92.3 million barrels by 2009.

The government also allotted some P14 billion to develop renewable energy resources. It is even offering incentives to encourage independent power producers to engage in this area of power generation.