Thursday, May 02, 2013

Eberswalde, Germany – Multi-solution German solar company mp-tec will be investing 100 million euros (roughly US$130 million) for up to 45 megawatts of solar capacity installations planned in various parts of the Philippines.

In an interview with mp-tec chief executive officer Michael Preißel, he disclosed that their planned investments will be for 8-10 projects to be undertaken via joint ventures with local firms SolarUs Partners Inc. and SunAsia Energy Inc.

”It’s a combination of utility-scale projects, rooftop installations and solutions for off-grid areas in northern Luzon,” he said.

One of the projects currently being firmed up is a 6.0-megawatt solar installation in Mindanao which will likely be underwritten by an electric cooperative in the area for a power purchase agreement, he said.

”In Mindanao, they have energy problem and we have seen the possibility to invest… it’s a way for us to start a new business there with the 6.0MW,” Preißel stressed.

The Philippines will be the German firm’s take-off point for prospective wider Asian investments as it also targets to grow its offshore markets. The company currently has investment presence in Ghana in Africa, Turkey and various European markets.

Generally, for the ventures that the company has been targeting in the Philippines, the feed-in-tariff (FIT) is not that relevant because the strategy will be to corner power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the servicing distribution utilities in project sites; while in off-grid areas, the high price of diesel can be easily matched by the prevailing cost of solar.

”My target is not to go for feed-in-tariff at the moment,” the mp-tec chief executive said, adding that the driving force for them to grow will be more on how stable the investment policies will turn out for the renewable energy sector.

To start gaining experience on the Philippine investment terrain, Preißel noted that their company already deployed technical engineers to assess concerns relating to re-designing grid structure at technical connection points.

”We need to collect experience. We have to do the right steps and to find the right strategies to optimize our project developments,” he said.

In Germany, while they can easily install 6.0 megawatts in just several months, he admitted that they have yet to study how things can be done at a faster pace in the Philippines because of factors such as finalizing the PPA, regulatory as well as permitting processes.

The company and its partners are still at the thick of negotiations with prospective off-taker utilities as well as in securing permits for their pipelined projects.

As a solar system integrator, mp-tec will be bringing in its technical as well as development experiences in production, planning as well as in designing the entire chain of solar projects.

By MMV