REPOWER ENERGY Development Corp. (REDC) has secured a P2.6-billion loan from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LANDBANK) for a 15-megawatt hydropower plant project in Bukidnon province, the state-owned bank announced on Tuesday.
In a statement, LANDBANK said the loan agreement signed Dec. 6 will partially finance the renewable energy project that will be handled by REDC subsidiary Cabanglasan Hydropower Corp.
The hydropower plant, which will tap the Pulangi River in Valencia City, is expected to be completed by 2025.
It will provide power supply to around 130,000 households in 15 towns in Bukidnon, a province in southern Philippines.
LANDBANK said the loan deal under its Renewable Energy Program is the latest in a series of financing support extended to REDC.
“Through the years, LANDBANK has collaborated with REDC and its subsidiaries towards advancing clean, sustainable, and reliable sources of renewable energy,” LANDBANK President and CEO Cecilia C. Borromeo is quoted in the statement.
REDC, according to its website, is a “renewable energy developer of mini-hydropower projects through a ‘clustered approach method’ where several projects are in a target area providing for shared economies of scale through common infrastructure, reducing the cost of development and improving the bottom line.”
“In just six short years of development, our group has brought 10 renewable energy power plants to operations — of which six are run-of-river hydropower, contributing around 50MW of clean energy to the grid,” REDC President Eric Peter Y. Roxas said in the bank’s statement.
“We have several hydropower projects under construction and in the pipeline, which we intend to bring to operations in the near future to help the country transition into a clean renewable, energy phase,” Mr. Roxas said.
As of end-October, LANDBANK said it has approved a total of P20.1 billion in loans to 56 borrowers under the Renewable Energy Program, including solar and biomass energy projects. — MSJ