Philippines’ largest battery comes online at 120MW solar park

AC Energy Inc (ACEN), the renewable energy arm of Filipino conglomerate Ayala Corporation, has energised a 40MW/60MWh storage facility at the 120MW Alaminos Solar plant, one of the Philippines’ largest operational PV projects.

Called Alaminos Energy Storage, the facility consists of two 20MW storage facilities that are planned to store power when electricity demand is low while also providing rapid power charging and ancillary services to the national grid.

“The facility holds 24 battery containers with SAFT 2.5MWh lithium-ion batteries, enough to power about 20,000 homes and avoid 35.87 metric tons of CO₂-equivalent emissions per year,” the manufacturer said in a statement.

The Alaminos solar plant is located in Alaminos, Laguna province, in the Calabarzon region’s island of Luzon. The plant began commercial operations in June.

Several large scale storage projects were completed or announced in the Philippines over the past months.

The power arm of the Philippines-based brewing-to-energy conglomerate San Miguel Corporation (SMC) recently said it is ready to start operations of an initial 690MW of battery storage facilities. These projects include a 470MW/470MWh portfolio that UK storage specialist Fluence is developing with San Miguel. The first 20MW/20MWh battery energy storage system of this portfolio was commissioned in late January.