SPNEC awards MTerra Solar contract to Power China

SP New Energy Corp. (SPNEC) of tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan has tapped Power Construction Corp. of China Ltd. (Power China) to develop a portion of the $4-billion MTerra Solar project in Central Luzon.

- By BRIX LELIS

SPNEC, a subsidiary of Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen), inked an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Power China and its affiliates to build the project's east section spanning around 1,505 hectares.

SPNEC unit Terra Solar Philippines Inc. (TSPI) is constructing a 3,500-megawatt-peak (MWp) solar power plant paired with a 4,500-MW hour battery energy storage system, which is poised to become the largest of its kind in the world.

Straddling the provinces of Nueva Ecija and Bulacan, the solar facility covers about 3,500 hectares of land, equivalent to the size of around 83,300 basketball courts or almost the same size as Pasig.

MGen, the investment generation arm of power giant Manila Electric Co., took over the project in 2023 after acquiring a controlling stake in SPNEC through MGen Renewable Energy Inc.