By: Aliahcorr Balanon, Sophia Pacheco
Photo courtesy of Office of the President of the Philippines
The Philippines on Monday, Sept. 15, inaugurated its first baseload solar farm in Batangas, a P10-billion project of Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC) designed to deliver reliable renewable power with the help of battery storage technology.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. led the launch of Citicore Solar (CS) Batangas 1, a facility that combines a 197-megawatt-peak solar plant with a 320-MW-hour Battery Energy Storage System (BESS).
The project can power around 158,000 homes and reduce carbon emissions by 265,000 tons each year, which is equivalent to removing thousands of vehicles from the road.
Located in Barangays Lumbangan and Luntal in Tuy, CS Batangas 1 is the country’s first solar farm capable of providing baseload power.
The project also integrates agrivoltaics, where crops are planted beneath and around solar panels. Marcos Jr. said that this approach maximizes land use, boosts farmers’ income, and enhances food security while producing clean energy.
“Dito sa Batangas, pinapakita natin sa buong mundo na ang solar power ang daan tungo sa isang pangmatagalan at malinis na paraan ng pagbibigay liwanag sa ating mga tahanan at industriya,” Marcos Jr. said.
CREC targets to reach five gigawatts of renewable capacity by 2030, supporting the government’s plan to raise the share of renewables in the energy mix to 35% by 2030 and 50% by 2040.
Marcos Jr. also stressed the need for the government to ‘move faster’ to keep pace with private sector innovations, citing the Batangas project as proof of how partnerships can advance both energy and food security.
“We have to work hard for the government to catch up. This is what we… We, [the] government, has to catch up to the technology that our private sector partners are providing,” Marcos Jr. said in his speech.