Alternergy taps foreign partner for wind project

ALTERNERGY Holdings Corp. has entered into a partnership with a foreign company for its Calavite Passage offshore wind project, a company official said last week.

“For the (Calavite) offshore project, there is already a definitive agreement for the partnership. We already executed a shareholders’ agreement with that company,” Alternergy’s Vice President and General Counsel Janina A. Bonoan told BusinessWorld in an interview.

Ms. Bonoan declined to identify the foreign company.

Vicente S. Pérez, Jr., chairman of Altenergy, said in a media release earlier in October that the power company received inquiries from foreign companies on renewable energy (RE) after the legal opinion of the Department of Justice that RE investments are not subject to foreign ownership restrictions.

The Calavite Passage offshore wind farm is among Alternergy’s renewables projects that are under early-stage development. It is located in Occidental Mindoro and has a potential capacity of 1,000 megawatts (MW).

“We have currently a 100% [ownership] of that (Calavite) project, but as I have said, we have a partner coming in,” she said, adding that “we are not at liberty to disclose it as of the moment.”

Ms. Bonoan said that Alternergy’s 28-MW-direct current Solana solar power project in Hermosa, Bataan is also among the company’s projects that are getting inquiries from foreign RE companies.

“For Solana, we also have foreign companies interested in developing Solana,” she said.

The construction of the Solana project is set to begin by the first quarter of 2023. The solar farm is expected to start operation by the last quarter of 2023.

Earlier in October, the Department of Energy (DoE) said foreign ownership restrictions on investments in the RE sector might be eased following the legal opinion of the Justice department. The move is expected to bring more foreign investments in RE projects.

“What’s good for the industry is also good for Alternergy and we think that opening up RE to foreign capital is good for the industry to reach our target to increase RE share,” Ms. Bonoan said.

Under the DoE’s National Renewable Energy Program, the government is targeting to increase the share of renewables in the power generation mix to 35% by 2030 and to 50% by 2040. — Ashley Erika O. Jose