MRC Allied starts work on mall’s solar rooftop

As published on BusinessWorld

MRC ALLIED, Inc. has broken ground on a 1.1 megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic rooftop project in one of the malls in Mindanao through its subsidiary Menlo Renewable Energy Corp. (MREN), the listed company said on Tuesday.

“Under the MoA (memorandum of agreement), MREN will be the project developer and owner of the solar facility while a private entity, owning and operating the mall, will be the power off-taker,” MREN said in a statement.

It did not identify the mall except to say that it is one of the “major” malls in southern Philippines.

The solar power project will have an estimated investment of P67.4 million through a 20-year cooperation among the parties from the issuance of the acceptance certificate, MRC said citing the MoA.

MRC previously said that its renewable energy subsidiary had signed a memorandum of agreement for the development, design, construction and installation of at least 1.1-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) rooftop system as part of the pilot project of its ambitious solar PV program.

The company, which was previously focused on property development, is expanding its solar energy footprint through the development of the solar PV rooftop project as part of its 200-MW target capacity for the next two years, MRC said.

In December last year, MRC said it expected to push through in early 2019 the issuance of new shares amounting to around P1 billion to fund its renewable energy development projects.

The fund raising was previously stalled because of issues with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to the use of the proceeds.

In October, MRC announced that it was reorganizing by consolidating under the listed company all its assets and portfolio while its operating subsidiaries will be implementing the projects.

On Tuesday, shares in MRC were unchanged at P0.405 each.