Prime Metroline Infrastructure Holdings Corp. (Prime Infra) of businessman Enrique Razon said Monday it signed an agreement with Solar Philippines to invest P1.5 billion for a 50-percent stake in Solar Philippines Tarlac Corp., the owner of the largest solar farm in the Philippines.
“We are pleased to join forces with one of the leading solar power developers in the country. Renewables as a stand-alone power source or combined with other forms of power generation and storage are the future of power generation both in terms of reliability and cost,” Razon, chairman of Prime Infra, said in a statement.
The agreement enables SPTC, owned by young businessman and president Leandro Leviste, to expand the Concepcion solar farm to up to 200 megawatts.
Prime Infra will also jointly develop with Solar Philippines two other solar projects serving the Luzon and Visayas grids.
The parties said the solar projects, totaling 800 MW in advanced stages of development, represent the largest solar project joint venture established in the country.
The transaction is the first step towards Prime Infra building its power generation portfolio in the Philippines, adding to its strategic gas-fired asset in Iraq which has been operating since February.
“We believe that partnerships are key to be competitive in the power business. We are honored to partner with the most entrepreneurial infrastructure conglomerate in the Philippines and look forward to building value together for many years to come,” Leviste said.
The Concepcion solar farm is one of the largest greenfield and renewable energy power plants to begin construction and achieve commercial operations under the Duterte administration.
The project supports the Department of Energy’s push to accelerate the adoption of renewable energy in the Philippines.
The project also does not avail of any feed-in-tariff subsidy and so reduces the generation costs of Filipino consumers.
Prime Infra is Razon’s infrastructure arm with activities and businesses in the construction, water and power segments. The company was incorporated in 2017 to focus on the development of strategic assets in emerging markets.