Meralco sets sights on renewable energy

MANILA, Philippines - Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) is warming up for its renewable energy venture next year, with solar energy as its first foray, the company’s top official said.

In an interview Wednesday night, Meralco chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan said the company is looking at one or two solar projects with a generating capacity of between 20 megawatts (MW) to 40 MW next year.

With the average investment for solar farms currently placed at $2 million per MW, Meralco may need to allocate about $40 million to $80 million for its maiden solar venture.

Pangilinan said no specific budget has been allocated for the planned investment yet, but noted the company is “being opportunistic about these investments.”

“There are plans to go into renewable energy next year, probably solar. We’re open to wind as well. The capacities of these are not large as supposed to a coal plant or a gas plant but we believe we should be in that space,” he said.

Pangilinan in July this year bared plans of creating a new unit for Meralco’s planned renewable energy investments.

The unit will be a separate entity from power generating unit Meralco Powergen Corp. (MGen).

MGen, for its part, is eyeing to build a portfolio of up to 3,000 MW of new power capacity to come mainly from baseload power plants that will address the growing energy demand in the country.