NexGen unit plans $2.5-B wind farm investment

AIRSTREAM Renewables Corp., a subsidiary of listed NexGen Energy Corp., is allocating $2.5 billion (P146 billion) to develop onshore wind farms with a total capacity of 1.7 gigawatts (GW).

The move follows the award of three wind energy service contracts from the Department of Energy (DoE), NexGen said in a stock exchange disclosure on Monday.

“Securing 1.7 gigawatts of new wind energy service contracts represents a major step forward in NexGen Energy’s growth strategy and materially strengthens our development pipeline,” said NexGen President Eric Peter Y. Roxas.

The wind projects include a 600-megawatt (MW) Pangasinan wind farm, a 600-MW Samar wind farm, and a 500-MW Nueva Ecija wind farm.

The Pangasinan Onshore Wind Project covers a land area of 13,770 hectares and will deliver electricity through the 230-kilovolt (kV) Labrador Substation of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).

Spanning 16,929 hectares, the Samar Onshore Wind Project will be linked to the grid via NGCP’s 138-kV Victoria Substation.

The Nueva Ecija Onshore Wind Project covers 9,234 hectares and will transmit its output to NGCP’s 230-kV Sampaloc Substation.

Mr. Roxas said the three new onshore wind projects position the company as “one of the most competitive large-scale wind developers in the country.”

“We remain focused on disciplined execution, capital efficiency, and building high-quality renewable assets that will deliver strong returns for years to come,” he added.

Airstream owns, develops, and operates all wind energy projects of NexGen. It currently holds eight service contracts, with a pipeline of over 3 GW of onshore and offshore wind projects.

NexGen is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tiu-backed Pure Energy Holdings Corp., which has a development pipeline totaling over 3.3 GW of wind and solar projects.

Shares in the company declined 2.82% to close at P3.10 apiece. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera