SP New Energy Corporation, or SPNEC, will start the construction of its over 3500-megawatt or MW solar expansion in Nueva Ecija within the year.

In an interview with reporters on Thursday, Solar Philippines founder Leandro Leviste said SPNEC will fully control the project — planned to be one of the world’s largest solar power plants.

“We have ongoing discussions on shareholding arrangements in certain of our projects, to find solutions that will benefit all parties. Our job is to turn hectares into megawatts,” Leviste said.

Controlling stake

“Out of deference for these discussions and respect to our partners, we will not yet elaborate, other than to say that we believe that it is in SPNEC’s interest to invest in projects where it has a controlling stake and that SPNEC is best served by allocating its capital to projects where this is the case,” he added.

The project, estimated to be almost triple the size of Ilijan Power Plant, currently the country’s largest plant, will be partly funded by the P2-billion investment from its newest partner, Metro Pacific Investment Corporation.

 Project completion by 2026

Leviste noted that the company targets to deliver and complete the project by 2026.

SPNEC’s Nueva Ecija expansion project comprises over 3,000 hectares acquired or being acquired in the same general area as the company’s first Nueva Ecija solar farm — covering an area of over 350 hectares. It would bring the group’s total land in the area secured to over 3,500 hectares.

With a total planned 4 gigawatts or GW of solar farm developments, the company’s combined developments in the Nueva Ecija area would surpass the capacity of India’s Bhadla Solar Farm, currently the world’s largest farm at over 2.2 GW.

Likewise, it will surpass the capacity of the total grid-connected solar operating in the country as of the end of 2022 at over 1.4 GW.