CEPALCO to build 4 more solar power plants in MisOr

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Jan. 5, 2011—True to its commitment to provide cheaper electricity to its consumers, the Cagayan Electric Power and Light Co. (CEPALCO) has embarked on developing alternative and indigenous resources for power generation such as the 1-megawatt solar photovoltaic plant in Barangay Indahag.
                Commissioned in 2004, the 1-MW solar photovoltaic plant which sits on a 2-hectare property generates electricity without any fuel, thus sparing the environment about 24,000 tons of carbon compound emissions a month.
                But with demand for electricity continues to go up, power utilities such as CEPALCO are trying to cope, thus the need to develop more alternative sources of energy to meet increasing demand.
                And CEPALCO is planning to invest P2.24 billion to build four more solar power plants in Misamis Oriental to augment its renewable power sources for the next twenty years.
                Each of these four solar facilities, which will have a capacity of 5 MW each, will be built in Barangay Kirahon, Villanueva, Misamis Oriental. 

                Each facility will cost P560 million, based on the cheapest estimates.
                CEPALCO targets to build one solar power plant every five years starting in 2015 to 2030.
                Once operational, these solar power plants will greatly augment to the world’s first on-grid solar photovoltaic power plant now operational in Barangay Indahag, which started commercial operation on September 26, 2004.
                From the start of its commercial operations, the PV plant in Indahag has exported to CEPALCO a total of 8,338,200 kilowatt hour (kWh) or an average of 1,389,700 annually, which is 10 percent higher than the expected annual energy generation of 1,261,400 kWh. (Bong D. Fabe)