Citicore Raises PHP4.4 B Debt for Pangasinan Solar Plant Build Project

• Citicore Renewable Energy seals PHP 4.4 billion loan to develop 125-MWp solar farm in Pangasinan, boosting Luzon’s clean-power supply.

Manila-based Citicore Renewable Energy Corporation (CREC) has secured a PHP 4.4 billion senior debt package to finance its 125-megawatt-peak solar project in Bugallon, Pangasinan—one of the largest single-site photovoltaic initiatives in northern Luzon to date.

The loan consortium, led by BPI Capital and joined by LandBank and China Banking Corporation, structured the facility with a fifteen-year tenor that aligns with the project’s power-purchase agreement. That agreement, won in the Philippine Department of Energy’s Green Energy Auction, guarantees Citicore a fixed rate for twenty years, providing revenue certainty in a market where spot prices can swing sharply with coal import costs.

Spread over 120 hectares of previously under-utilised scrubland, the plant will deploy high-efficiency mono-PERC modules on single-axis trackers capable of withstanding typhoon-class winds. Annual generation is estimated at 200 gigawatt-hours—enough to cover the electricity demand of roughly sixty thousand households while displacing more than 100 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

Citicore CEO Oliver Tan said construction would begin “within weeks” and create up to 600 local jobs at peak. The company has signed a livelihood agreement with Bugallon’s municipal government, committing to road improvements and a scholarship fund for engineering students. Tan added that CREC is exploring an onsite agri-solar pilot to allow farmers to grow shade-tolerant crops beneath elevated panel rows, turning idle land into dual-income acreage.

Pangasinan’s grid connection is already secured: the plant will tie into NGCP’s 230-kilovolt San Manuel substation via a dedicated spur line, minimising curtailment risk. Engineering procurement and construction services will be provided by Citicore’s in-house EPC arm, leveraging economies of scale from its expanding 1-gigawatt pipeline.

The debt raise underscores domestic lenders’ growing appetite for renewables, especially projects backed by auction-derived offtake contracts. With the Energy Regulatory Commission eyeing another procurement round early next year, Citicore’s successful close positions it well to bid aggressively for additional capacity and keep pace with the Philippines’ ambition to hit 35 percent renewables by decade’s end.