Bank of the Philippine Islands backs SaCaSol's solar plans

Jul 17, 2014 - The Bank of the Philippine Islands (PSE:BPI) has extended a loan of up to PHP 500 million (USD 11.5m/EUR 8.5m) to support the local solar projects of San Carlos Solar Energy Inc (SaCaSol), one of the company’s investors announced.

The project developer is a joint venture between local firm Bronzeoak Philippines Inc and European investor ThomasLloyd Group. The latter said in a statement on Wednesday that the BPI loan represents the first financing transaction involving a Philippine financial institution that is to support renewable energy development.

SaCaSol in May 2014 put online the Philippines’ first solar park -- a 13-MW plant near the port of San Carlos City, Negros Occidental province. The project has a second phase of 9 MW. Once completed, the 22-MW solar power facility is expected to produce enough electricity to power 13,000 local households per year.

At present, SaCaSol is working on additional solar and biomass power plant projects in the Philippines. In March this year, ThomasLloyd said it has secured a loan of USD 330 million (EUR 244m) from the International Finance Corp (IFC) for the schemes.

(PHP 10 = USD 0.230/EUR 0.170)

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