By Dean Aubrey Caratiquet
On the heels of his earlier engagements at the Malacañang Palace and in Laguna, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. led the ceremonial switch-on of the Citicore Solar Batangas 1 Power Plants in Tuy, Batangas, on Monday, which he touts as the catalyst for a cleaner and safer future.
The Lumbangan and Luntal Power Projects, which can produce up to 197-megawatts of energy and are supplemented by a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), enable the solar facility to continuously provide power and simultaneously store energy to power approximately 158,300 households.
President Marcos said in his speech at the energization of the country’s first hybrid agro-solar and battery storage system, “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.”
Beyond energy production, the President said Citicore is also innovatively combining solar power generation with agriculture by using agrivoltaics—a method of planting crops beneath and around solar panels.
The President said, noting the versatility of the renewable energy project, “Another new feature of this project is the fact that there is the use—the same land to grow crops, to grow vegetables, to grow agricultural products, so that the land is categorized as agro-energy, which is a new category altogether.”
The Chief Executive hailed this project as a significant breakthrough in the country’s steady push away from fossil fuels and towards renewable sources of energy such as solar, wind, and wave energy collection.
Marcos concluded in his remarks, “Kasabay nito, ang Department of Energy (DOE) at iba pang ahensya ng pamahalaan, ang National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) ay patuloy na nagkakaisa upang masiguro na may sapat na transmission line at imprastraktura upang maihatid ang kuryente sa ating tahanan, paaralan, at mga negosyo.”
Also in attendance at the event were Indonesian Ambassador to the Philippines Agus Widjojo; Batangas First District Representative Leandro Leviste; Batangas Provincial Vice Governor Hermilando Ingco Mandanas; Tuy, Batangas Mayor Jose Jecerell Cerrado; DOE Sec. Sharon Garin; Citicore Renewables Chairperson Edgar Saavedra, and President and CEO Oliver Tan.
av
