At Maoneng Philippines International Corporation, We Are Bringing International Expertise In The Local Philippine Solar Market: Patrick Zhu, Managing Director, Maoneng Philippines International Corporation

Conversation Highlights:

• Currently we have an ongoing project to CCLEX the new and longest bridge in the Philippines also owned by Metro Pacific
• In few weeks time we shall be launching BERDE RENEWABLES
• There is no single Solar Company focusing on C&I that will be as big as Berde and as aggressive as Berde.

Give us a brief overview of your company and its services.

Maoneng Philippines is part of the Maoneng group based in Australia. We are a 100% renewable energy company. It was established in the year 2018 with Solar EPC on C&I as its core business.

We are bringing international expertise in the local Philippine Solar market.

What have been some of your major projects?

We built our first Megawatt Solar project to RPMC, a manufacturing company with multiple facilities located in Valenzuela and Quezon City. We built the award-winning CALAX Solar Carpark owned by Metro Pacific Tollways, and currently we have an ongoing project to CCLEX the new and longest bridge in the Philippines also owned by Metro Pacific, and in the next few weeks we will build another project to CAVITEX, also under Metro Pacific. Wilcon Home Depot, the countries leading retailer on House Improvements and Construction supplies, we have ongoing projects to their 18 sites located nationwide with an aggregate capacity of 5MW. Many other big ticket projects are on its way to development.

What is your view on the Philippines’ current solar market? How do you see it evolving in 2023?

Specifically on the C&I segment, the market has reached its maturity stage. According to the Department of Energy’s data of 2020 the total installed Solar PV system is only 200MW so the market was not yet captured during that time. The catalyst for the Solar market boom now are (1) High Electricity Rates, caused by high coal price and diesel price triggered by Ukraine war (2) Strong regulatory support from the government specially the current administration, the increase in net-metering cap from 100kW to 1MW will drive the Solar demand (3) The country is now facing energy crisis due to low power reserves which is likewise keeping the current electricity prices at its record high, the Moratorium on Coal signed a couple of years back and the depletion of Malampaya reserves will all play factor to this. There is a reliable solution to it, and that’s Solar, Solar is the cheapest and easiest technology to deploy. 2023 will definitely be exciting!

What have been some milestones achieved by your company in 2022?

Aside from the big projects we completed last year, we are proud to welcome the arrival of Isquared Capital partnering to Maoneng. Isquared Capital, being a world-renowned infrastructure equity investor with more than 30 billion USD assets under its diverse global portfolio that includes renewables, just goes to show how these global leading companies are showing confidence and interest to Maoneng. We can’t be more happy and proud to this current development, in few weeks time we shall be launching BERDE RENEWABLES, we’ll provide Renewable Energy-as-a-solution to the Philippines, we’ll be investing heavily on C&I PPA.

What are the growth plans for 2023?

Berde Renewables will only not be competitive but we’ll aspire to dominate the market, we’ll be expanding like 400% of our current manpower. There is no single Solar Company focusing on C&I that will be as big as Berde and as aggressive as Berde. Our plan is to get the lion’s share.