Embracing the sun
The sun couldn’t have shone any brighter on that day in Gapan, Nueva Ecija.
For one, it was the 80th birthday of our beloved chairman, Manuel V. Pangilinan (MVP).
For another, it was the perfect day for the inauguration of Phase 1 of the MTerra Solar Project, graced no less than by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) and First Lady Marie Louise “Liza” Araneta-Marcos.
Back in 2024, President Marcos himself also led the groundbreaking of this, err, groundbreaking project.
MTerra Solar started as a project of Solar Philippines which was later carried forward by SP New Energy Corporation (SPNEC). This inauguration was really the payoff of about two years of construction, which was on schedule; and, considering a project this size, this is no small feat.
MTerra Solar is Terra Solar Philippines Inc., a joint venture between SPNEC, MGreen, and Actis, a UK-based infrastructure investor. MGreen, or MGen Renewable Energy, Inc., is the renewable energy arm of Meralco PowerGen Corp. or MGen.
Meralco MGen is the power generation subsidiary of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), the largest electric distribution utility in the Philippines. Established in 2010, MGen develops, invests in, and manages power plants to ensure a stable, reliable and competitive electricity supply for the country.
Once the whole project is finished, it’ll cover about 3,500 hectares spread across Gapan, General Tinio, Peñaranda, and San Leonardo in Nueva Ecija, plus San Miguel in Bulacan.
Full build-out is targeted at 3,500 megawatts of solar capacity paired with a 4,500-megawatt-hour battery storage system. Phase 1, the part that was inaugurated, is already about 91 percent done — 1,373 megawatts of solar and 825 megawatts (3,300 MWh) of battery storage, enough to send up to 600 megawatts to Meralco’s grid.
The project is designed to be the world’s largest integrated solar farm and battery storage facility. Comparable projects exist in places like Texas and China’s Gobi Desert region, but nothing quite matches this project in sheer size and strength.
Besides the President and First Lady, Energy Secretary Sharon Garin was present, along, of course, with the birthday boy, Meralco chairman and CEO MVP and MGen president and CEO Emmanuel “Manny” Rubio.
It was a fairly packed room of government and business people, plus a good number of local officials and community members from the host towns.
As mentioned earlier, the inauguration fell on chairman MVP’s 80th birthday. Rather than mark the milestone with quiet celebration, he chose to spend it exactly where his life’s work has always taken him: on the ground, with his people building the country’s future.
PBBM opened his remarks by ribbing MVP about turning 80, noting he now qualifies for the government’s cash incentive for octogenarians under the Expanded Centenarians Act. What MVP will do with the cash incentive, well, you just need to read the STAR to know more about it.
For his part, MVP kept his own remarks short and sweet. He pointed out that what had just been switched on was the world’s largest facility of its kind and made sure to credit it to the many people across Meralco and its partners who worked to get it built.
Manny Rubio, the rockstar MGen president and CEO, added that the goal behind the project was straightforward: reliable, affordable power for Filipinos, delivered through a project built with the surrounding communities rather than around them.
Once MTerra Solar is fully built out, it is expected to generate enough electricity for around 2.4 million households, and the battery storage should help even out supply on the Luzon grid, again because solar’s biggest weakness has always been that the sun doesn’t shine 24/7 and that we also need batteries to store the acquired energy.
PBBM made the point plainly in his speech: the Philippines has leaned on conventional power for a long time, and it is past time to broaden that mix.
Again, another clear example of what happens when the private and public sector join hands and work together.
Phase 1 is expected to be fully operational by August and, with this template, trust that there will be more MGen projects of the sort in the offing.
To borrow a line from a popular ‘60s song: Let the sun shine in. *
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