Cavite houses first solar net-metered community

The country’s first solar net-metered community will be built in Trece Martires in Cavite City, real estate company Imperial Homes Corp (IHC) announced early this week.

IHC President and Chief Executive Officer Emma Imperial explained that net metering will allow qualified electricity consumers to produce their own power using renewable energy (RE) facilities such as solar panel systems. The excess power will be sold to distribution utilities for credits that can be used to offset power bills.

Imperial said the solar facilities, the whole community can save as much as P1.2 billion over 25 years by generating clean power which offsets 45,000 tons of carbon emissions, equivalent to planting 50 million trees. Through net-metering, she added, consumers are also given the chance to help stabilize the Luzon power grid.

Net metering was allowed by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in 2019 after its decision to revise its rules to allow simplified permitting procedure and reduced installation soft costs for RE facilities.

Imperial is happy to announce that the 50,000 square-meter area has been “sold out” already.

The project is targeted to be completed by 2025. “We have this will serve as a model for affordable, resilient and sustainable projects in Cavite,” she said.

Imperial revealed that they are also looking to set up similar net-metered projects in Cabanatuan, Nueva Ecija in the future.

IHC prides itself as the country’s first property technology developer since 1983. So far, it has launched 28 real estate development projects and built over 20,000 homes. Jinky Jorgio