The Spanish energy company Acciona Energía has officially broken ground on the 176 MW Daanbantayan solar project on the island of Cebu, in the north of the Philippines.
The €120m (US$131m) project is located in the municipality of Daanbantayan and is scheduled to start operations in late 2026 with an expected production of 280 GWh/year, enough to supply a population of approximately 300,000 people.
The project includes a battery system to store energy generated by the solar plant to be released during peak demand periods and help stabilise the power grid.
The company has signed the country’s first public-private partnership (PPP) in the sector with the provincial government of Cebu to organise the project’s power distribution.
At the end of 2023, the Philippines had a total installed capacity of 28 GW, of which solar represented 5.8% (1.6 GW). The country seeks to increase its share of renewables in the energy mix to 35% by 2030 and 50% by 2050.
