By Sheldeen Joy Talavera, Reporter
LOPEZ-LED First Gen Corp. plans to build a 50-megawatt (MW) solar power facility in Batangas, according to its president.
“Right now, we’re hoping that we can build our largest solar investment, which will be 50 megawatts, and that will be the springboard for more solar expansion of the First Gen Group moving ahead,” First Gen President and Chief Operating Officer Francis Giles B. Puno said in an interview with BusinessWorld.
The solar power project was allocated a portion of next year’s capital expenditure (capex) budget, amounting to approximately P35 billion.
If the company is to start the construction next year, Mr. Puno estimated it to invest around between P1 billion and P2 billion.
“This will take roughly about two years to build those facilities,” he said.
As the company is quite “coming from behind,” it is aiming to be “more aggressive” in investing in solar facilities.
“Hopefully, we can get attractive prices for our solar investment. But we’re very serious about expanding solar installation across the country,” Mr. Puno said.
The company is targeting a lower capex budget for 2025 amounting to P35 billion, of which 90% will be allocated for its renewable energy subsidiary Energy Development Corp.’s drilling activities and growth projects.
First Gen has a total of 3,668 MW of installed capacity coming from its portfolio of plants that run on geothermal, wind, hydro, solar energy, and natural gas.