Floating solar facility to be put up in Laguna Lake

MANILA, Philippines — Local solar developer Sun-Asia Energy has teamed up with French company Ciel & Terre to install a floating solar facility in Laguna Lake, the biggest fresh water resource in the country.

The floating solar project will be installed through SunAsia’s subsidiary NorteSol, which signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) and local government units covering the area.

Through the project, SunAsia chairman Noel Cariño said the company hopes to make the water surfaces profitable so they can provide benefits to government revenue collection, fewer risks to wildlife and habitat, and conservation of water resources due to reduced evaporation.

“Floating solar offers a solution to the long-drawn permitting process associated with land use conversion. We look forward to taking advantage of this technology in the Philippines in order to increase renewable energy penetration in the country consistent with the Department of Energy’s goal to procure 35 percent of the Philippine electricity supply from renewable sources by 2030 as stipulated in the recently issued Renewable Portfolio Standards,” he said.

Meanwhile, LLDA general manager Jaime Medina said the partnership “is a major step in harnessing not only Laguna Lake, but also the hundreds of water surfaces, such as ponds, irrigation dams, and water quarries for solar energy production.”

The Laguna Lake collaboration is the latest among Sun-Asia’s clean energy & electrification projects in the Philippines.

The company has developed innovative solar solutions in the country since 2013. Its most widely-known project is the 60-megawatt (MW) solar PV plant built in Toledo City, Cebu in 2016.

The project facilitated the increased share of clean energy on the coal-dominated island of Cebu, mitigating an average of 48 tons of carbon per year since 2016 and employing about 5,000 locals during the peak of plant construction.

It is also the first solar project combining food production with solar production as the power plant supports livestock operations.