SOLAR FARM. MinebeaMitsumi's solar farm in its property in Danao City, Cebu in this undated photo. The 7.9-megawatt hour solar power system will provide electricity for its Danao plant. (Courtesy of MinebeaMitsumi)
MANILA – The Board of Investments (BOI) is providing more incentives to registered projects that will be supplying their own electricity by putting up their own renewable energy (RE) facility.
Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo said at a virtual briefing Thursday that Memorandum Circular (MC) 2023-006 signed last Oct.16 updated the guidelines on giving incentives on energy efficiency and conservation (EE&C) projects under the special laws listing of the 2022 Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP).
Rodolfo said the amendments to the BOI MC 2022-008 is a fulfillment of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s promise during his visit to Tokyo last February to provide support to Japanese firms and other investors in the Philippines who will build their own renewables facilities to supply their own electricity demand.
The latest MC noted that self-financed energy efficiency projects (EEP) are entitled to the income tax holiday (ITH) incentive and duty exemption on importation of capital equipment, raw materials and spare parts or accessories.
“The ITH incentive shall be limited to the prescribed ITH entitlement period under the CREATE (Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises) Act or until the recovery of 50 percent of its capital investment, excluding cost of land and working capital of the registered EEP, whichever comes first,” the MC read.
First taker
On Thursday, Japanese mechanical components and electronic devices manufacturer MinebeaMitsumi, Inc. installed its own solar power system in its factory in Danao City, Cebu.
MinebeaMitsumi president and chief executive officer Tatsuya Mori said in the same online briefing that the company has invested around PHP500 million for its own ground-mounted solar power generation with a capacity of 7.9 megawatt hours (MWh).
“We are very happy to be the first case to have these incentives which can be applied for our own use in Danao,” Mori told trade reporters.
In a separate statement, Sharp Energy Solutions Corporation (SESJ), the provider of the solar power system, said the solar farm will generate an estimated 12,806 MWh clean energy annually, making it the largest self-financed renewables for own consumption among Japanese firms in the Philippines.
“This equated to an annual reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of roughly around 6,833 tons of carbon dioxide per year,” SESJ added.
MinebeaMitsumi Cebu Plant director Caesar Augusto also said the power generation from its own renewables will supply 8 percent of the factory’s total electricity consumption.
Moreover, Mori said the company plans to replicate the project in its two factories in Luzon, which could be rooftop solar farms.
Clean energy transition
Rodolfo also encouraged registered BOI firms to take advantage of the new guidelines on incentives under the new MC as part of the country’s transition to clean energy.
“The shift towards RE has been imperative,” Rodolfo said, adding that the Marcos administration creates policies, implements these projects and promotes these incentives.
“We are putting a premium in sustainability,” he added. (PNA)
