The largest solar and battery storage project in the Western Pacific has been installed in Palau, a 15.3 MW solar system combined with a 13.2 MWh battery.
The US$29 million installation will meet more than 25% of the country’s electricity needs, and is now feeding power into the central grid in Babeldaob, the largest island in the Republic. It is the first large scale solar project in Palau.
The project was delivered by Philippines-based power producer Solar Pacific Energy Corporation (SPEC), the solar developer of parent company Altenergy Holdings. It is Altenergy’s first renewable energy project outside of its home territory.
“This is a proud day for Alternergy as a Philippine-based company successfully inaugurating our very first renewable power project abroad,” said Vicente S. Pérez Jr, Alternergy chairman.
Technical and project management was delivered by Norwegian classification group DNV, which supervised the design, pre-construction, construction, and project completion stages.
“With a project in a location as unique as the Republic of Palau, the jurisdiction itself is challenging as the project engineering codes and local requirements are very specific,” said Michael Niu, project manager at Energy Systems at DNV. The company predicts that solar PV and solar coupled with storage will play a significant role in the region’s electricity generation share, rising sharply from the late 2030s to generating 74 percent of the electricity by 2050.
