Renewable industry players are keenly looking at floating solar power projects in Laguna Lake, or Laguna de Bay, which have the potential to generate thousands of megawatts of electricity.
AC Energy Corp. president and chief executive Eric Francia said the industry was waiting for the Laguna Lake Development Authority to come out with a policy and unlock the lake’s renewable energy potential.
“That’s ripe of the picking. We are hopeful the LLDA will finalize its policy and start issuing the water rights to the various developers,” Francia said.
He said floating solar could serve as a short to medium-term solution to the country’s tight power supply as it could be done in next two to three years, “depending on how we can get the permitting process, but we are preparing for that.”
Francia said several companies including AC Energy expressed interest to put up floating solar projects in Laguna Lake, which has about 90,000 hectares of water surface.
He said it would require roughly one hectare to produce 1 megawatt. You are not going to build 100 percent on the lake but you can build anywhere between 5 to 25 percent. That’s significant. That’s anywhere between 5,000 to 25,000 MW in theory,” he said.
Francia said the limiting factor would be the transmission constraints, although the Laguna Lake is almost at the center of the demand which would relieve the pressure on National Grid Corp. of the Philippines to keep on building transition lines.
He said emerging technologies such as floating solar should be included in the country’s energy transition plan.
“Renewables will have a big role to play. Gas will have a transition role and all of this enabling technologies will have to be factored in as they get developed over time. This new emerging tech should be looked at as an industry,” Francia said during a webinar.
“There are variants as well. Floating solar is something that would really expand the potential capacity in the Philippines,” he said.
He said the power industry is also looking at the potential of offshore wind projects. “Offshore wind is 5 to 10 years away in terms of the competitiveness of the technology, similar to battery storage. But definitely since we are looking at a long term horizon, it is something that we as an industry should look at,” Francia said.
He said beyond 10 years, the industry should also watch out for developments in green hydrogen. “No doubt it is something that could take the trajectory of solar and battery storage which experienced exponential decline in cost and increase in efficiencies,” Francia said.
He said these new renewable technologies should be incorporated in the grid. “NGCP is prioritizing this but there are challenges in right-of-way acquisitions,” he said.