Zamboanga to be hub of Asia's largest solar power plant

ZAMBOANGA CITY — A group of Filipino-French investors has chosen Zamboanga City to be the hub of the country’s first ever and Southeast Asia’s largest solar energy plant with a power generation capacity of 100 megawatts.

Talisayan, Zamboanga map (Photo courtesy of Google Maps)

City Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco said the solar power farm will be set up at the Zamboanga Economic Zone property in Barangay Talisayan, west of this city and the construction of the solar power farm is expected to begin in a week’s time or two, and the target date for completion is on or before March 2016.

Mayor Climaco made the announcement during the Christmas party she tendered for the city’s barangay officials at Palacio del Sur of Marcian Garden Hotel, Wednesday morning.

She said the coming of a clean and green renewable energy could be the final solution to the power crisis. The city continues to experience an 8-hour daily rotational blackout.

Climaco urged the elected and appointed officials of the city’s 98 barangays to pray for the realization of the solar power farm the soonest time possible for the betterment of Zamboanga and its people.

She said the people here are already suffering from the blackout for over a year now.

The mayor together with Zamboanga Economic Zone Authority (ZamboEcoZone) Chair Christopher Lawrence Arnuco and members of the board had met earlier with the officials of the Ecoglobal Inc., the Fil-French investors group that will finance, manage and operate the solar power plant.

Heading the group was Jean-Philippine Henry, chief executive officer (CEO) of Ecoglobal Inc.

During the meeting, they discussed and finalized the multimillion solar power farm investment in a bid to end the power outages in Zamboanga.

According to Henry, the solar power farm at ZamboEcoZone will start with 30mw and will gradually increase its capacity to 100mw then it will peak at 300mw, but this time with the combination of wind energy.

He said wind mapping has been conducted and they found out that the wind coming to the city is more than enough source of energy, and that will be their next project after the solar plant.

Zamboanga to be hub of Asia"s largest solar power plant