Acen Renewables, the renewable energy unit of Philippines-based Ayala Corp., has revealed that it has started building two solar power plants in its home country. It said the two facilities will have capacities of 60 MW and 300 MW and will be located in the provinces of Pangasinan and Zambales, respectively.

The Pangasinan solar farm is being built at a cost of PHP 2.8 billion ($51 million).

“It will be directly connected to the grid through a 2 km transmission line to the NGCP 69kV San Manuel Substation,” said Acen Renewables.

The second project, the Palauig 2 Solar farm, will require an investment of PHP 16 billion. The company said that module manufacturer Seraphim will supply 540 MWp high-efficiency solar panels for the installation. The project will be built near Acen's existing 63 MW Palauig 1 solar project.

“This expansion of our Palauig solar assets comes at an exciting time for ACEN’s Philippine operations as we are relying on our core market to boost our energy transition efforts in the region,” said the company's chief development officer, Jose Maria Zabaleta. “Palauig 2 Solar is the first of several new plants to commence with major construction works this year, and the need to sustain this accelerated pace towards the exponential growth of the renewables space is on top of our agenda.”

In February 2022, AC Energy completed and switched on a 40MW/60MWh storage facility at the 120MW Alaminos Solar plant. It is now one of the largest operational PV projects in the country.

The Philippines plans to install 15 GW of clean energy by 2030. Recent statistics from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) show that the nation had 1.08 GW of installed PV capacity by the end of 2021. Most of the nation’s solar facilities were secured under its old feed-in tariff regime, as well as auctions and net-metering programs.