SPNEC to acquire large plots of land for Joint Ventures

During a late-morning disclosure, Solar Philippines NECs’ (SPNEC) Leandro Leviste announced that his firm plans to develop 10 gigawatts of solar projects. SPNEC has said that it can achieve this through asset-for-share swaps with its parent company, Solar Philippines. The disclosure mentions that Solar Philippines has spent the last few years acquiring land assets throughout Metro Manila “in anticipation of the day when this demand would come.”

SPNEC adds that it may need to conduct a stock-rights offering to raise capital by forming joint ventures. The firm admits that a project of this size would only be feasible if it parters with “the country’s leading power companies.” However, SPNEC plans to complete the formation of these joint ventures before the end of 2022. 

Leviste’s strategy is centered around acquiring solar-ready land and building a portfolio of solar-rich land before other power companies even get the chance to. He will then bid out projects to the larger power companies to develop the land using joint ventures. 

It is worth noting that solar power generation is a land-intensive activity as the general rule is 100 square feet per 1 kilowatt of power. This yields a land requirement of 93 square kilometers for a 10GW plan. To put that into perspective, that is about three times the land area of Makati City.

Source: Philstar