The Board of Investments (BOI) in the Philippines has given a ‘green lane certificate’ for a solar and storage project said to be the largest in the world, enabling it to proceed at a quicker pace.
The BOI has given the certificate to the Terra Solar project, which plans to pair 3,500MW of solar PV with a 4,500MWh battery energy storage system (BESS).
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The project is being developed by Terra Solar Philippines, Inc. (TSPI), which is co-owned by independent power producer (IPP) SP New Energy Corporation (SPNEC) and utility Manila Electric Company (Meralco). The green lane certificate was received by Emmanuel Rubio, president and CEO of Meralco subsidiary MGen.
Terra Solar would span 3,500 hectares of land in the Bulacan and Nueva Ecija provinces and would cost PHP185 billion (US$3.2 billion). The project would be the largest in the world by capacity, in terms of solar, BESS and both technologies combined.
The BOI is the Philippines government’s lead industry development and investment promotion agency and a green lane certificate is designed to speed up the process of acquiring permits and licenses for strategic investments that align with the country’s national development plans.
It is hoped the certificate could help Terra Solar reach commercial operations for its first phase—for which the size has not been disclosed—by February 2026 and the second phase the year after.
The project has also received a Certificate of Energy Project of National Significance from the Department of Energy, more of a formality as any project above US$59 million in investment value receives this certificate automatically.
The Terra Solar project appears to be the same one that was proposed by billionaire Enrique K Razon’s Prime Infrastructure Holdings two years ago, covered by Energy-Storage.news at the time. Prima Infra along with IPP Solar Philippines set up a joint venture entity called Terra Solar to develop the project. At the time, it was said the project would provide power to Meralco under a power purchase agreement (PPA) rather than being directly owned by the company, which appears to have changed.
The Philippines was a hot topic of discussion at Solar Media’s Energy Storage Summit Asia 2024 last month—see our write-up of one of its panels discussing the country’s energy storage market here (Premium access).
The BOI’s green lane certificate for Terra Solar coincided with several other renewable investment approvals from the department, including PHP263 million worth of solar rooftop projects, the PHP297 billion Pakil Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Power Project and the PHP114.7 billion Guimaras Strait Offshore Wind Power Projects.
