By Richmond S. Mercurio (The
Philippine Star) | Updated March 9, 2015 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - Property
developers Ayala Land Inc. (ALI) and DoubleDragon Properties Corp. are joining
the solar power bandwagon.
ALI is installing a 1.5 megawatt (MW)
rooftop solar power system in its 9.3-hectare MarQuee mall in Pampanga, while
DoubleDragon, the property joint venture
of the founders of grilled chicken chain Mang Inasal and fastfood giant
Jollibee Foods Corp., is embarking on a much bigger solar venture.
“We’ve been awarded projects with
Ayala Land and DoubleDragon. Solar power is really hot these days, everyone
wants one and everyone is trying to see how they can integrate solar into their
developments,” said Leandro Leviste, president of Solar Philippines, a leading
solar panel provider in the country.
ALI’s planned rooftop solar power
system is expected to match SM North Edsa’s solar plant in terms of size.
In November last year SM became
the largest solar-powered mall after its
North Edsa parking building was outfitted with 5,760 solar panels and 60
inverters covering over 12,000 square meters.
DoubleDragon, in partnership with the
SM Group, meanwhile, is looking to energize all of its planned chain of
community malls with solar power.
CityMall Commercial Centers Inc.
(CMCCI) targets to complete 25 CityMalls by end of 2015 and 100 CityMalls by
2020, as it hopes to have the largest branded community mall chain in the
Philippines.
CMCCI to date has secured 20 sites for
its community malls.
“All of their branches will be
solar-powered-25 this year and 100 in the next five years,” Leviste said.
Leviste said CityMall’s first branch
in Capiz, which was completed in December last year, has already been installed
with a 568-kilowatt (kW) rooftop solar system.
Upcoming solar-powered CityMalls are
expected to have an average of 600 kW of generating capacity, he added.
Rooftop solar power systems are seen
to augment the malls’ power requirements and are expected to operate for over
25 years and offset an estimated 40,000 tons of CO2.
Robinsons Land Corp. (RLC), another
mall developer, last week inaugurated its 1.2 MW rooftop solar system in
Robinsons Place Palawan.
____________________________________________________________
