SP New Energy Corp., or SPNEC, now led by businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan kicked off the year by groundbreaking its massive P200-billion solar project — touted as the world's largest solar venture.

SPNEC said its wholly-owned subsidiary, Terra Solar Philippines Inc., clearing the 3,500-hectare sites in Nueva Ecija and Bulacan where the project will be built.

The first phase of the project is scheduled to be delivered by the first quarter of 2026.

To meet this timeline, SPNEC is expediting its site-clearing activities ahead of the construction of the project's interconnection facilities with the national grid and the installation of over 5 million solar panels.

The Terra Solar project is centered around pasturelands in the town of Peñaranda.

SPNEC had completed the solar panel installation for the first of its Nueva Ecija development in the same town.

The Terra Solar project is planned to consist of 3500 megawatts or MW of solar panels and 4000 megawatt-hours or mWH of battery storage.

5-B kWh expected

Annually, the project is expected to generate over 5 billion kilowatt-hour or kWh — an estimated 5 percent of the total volume of the national grid and 12 percent of its total demand.

Once completed, the project would be larger than India's Bhadla Solar Park and China's Golmud Solar Park, which are currently the world's largest solar farms at over 2.2 GW.

As per the Department of Energy's latest figures, the project would also exceed the capacity of all grid-connected solar projects operating in the Philippines combined at over 1.5 GW.

Accelerated work on this project comes with the completion of the P15.9 billion investment of MGen Renewable Energy Inc. or MGreen in SPNEC on 27 December 2023.

SPNEC disclosed the 3500 MW solar and 4000 MWh battery project to be the primary use of proceeds for the investment.