The 5th Economic Development Group, or EDG, meeting has resolved a critical environment certification issue of the large-scale floating solar projects in Laguna Lake, that is projected to produce up to 1,800 megawatts or MW.

Chaired by Special Assistant to the president, or SAP, Frederick Go, the meeting discussed and agreed for the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to revise Administrative Order 2023-08, which mandates the Laguna Lake Development Authority to apply for Programmatic Environment Environmental Compliance Certificate for projects within Laguna Lake.

The AO, if not revised, will push back the implementation timelines of the solar projects by 6 months to 2 years. The floating solar farms projects in Laguna Lake is scheduled for completion in two to four years.

Go presided the recent EDG meeting where DENR agreed to revise the AO’s guidelines in securing ECCs. Under the revised AO, proponents of the floating solar projects, instead of the LLDA, will be allowed to apply for the ECC directly to DENR.

Up to 2,000 hectares (~4,930 acres) of the 91,170 hectare (~227,000 acres) inland lake have been allocated to floating solar projects auctioned off by the LLDA with the recommendation of the Philippine Department of Energy.

The power-hungry Luzon grid, which feeds electricity to the National Capital Region, will in two years get additional supplies of power from three floating solar farms in Laguna Lake.

The resolution of the environmental certification issue will hasten the floating solar projects’ completion, which is line with the current administration desire to implement more projects as part of the Build, Better, More Infrastructure Agenda.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., during the groundbreaking of another infra project, said his administration intents to bring comfort and progress to Filipinos nationwide through large scale, environment-friendly projects.

Projects in 3 cities, 2 towns

The solar projects will be sited in 3 cities and 2 towns in the southern and eastern parts of the lake, farthest from where commercial operations are conducted in the lake.

LLDA has given contracts to three companies for the floating solar proiects. They are Ayala-led ACEN Corp., which has the biggest share of the grid pie with over a thousand megawatts of capacity and 8 contracts. This is followed by the partnership between Blueleaf Energy Asia Pte. Ltd., and SunAsia Energy Inc. with 6 contracts and a commitment of 610.5 megawatts. Vena Energy Corp. follows with 270 MW of capacity in one contract.

The total capacity of the 15 floating solar power contracts is 1,880.5 MW. This is equivalent to the electricity demand of over 2 million homes.

Other matters resolved during the meeting were the Department of Agriculture’s Farm and Fisheries Clustering and Consolidation Program, which aims to encourage farmers and fisher groups to adopt strategies of clustering and consolidation of their production, processing, and marketing activities as a community business enterprise.

Current data shows that 1,296 clusters have been formed involving 482,842 farmers and fishers covering 778,740.19 hectares of land.

During the meeting, DENR also discussed its plans and strategies for the development of the mining sector, including exploring more sites and categorizing them as Mineral Reservation Areas.

Go directed the concerned agencies to focus on green minerals and developing the nickel downstream processing industry, following Indonesia’s roadmap.