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Success stories
ARUP Philippines A critical friend to a complex hillside solar plant in the Philippines
Lynn Dimayuga, Associate Director – Energy Business Leader
How is ARUP thriving? ARUP is drawing on all its experience in supporting solar farm developments and operating in awkward terrains to help the Philippines on its much-needed energy transition journey. Faced with a grid unable to provide a stable power supply during the pandemic, the government has ramped up its efforts to facilitate more renewable energy developments, with solar plants identified as a critical component of its energy security strategy. To make the most of the opportunity, projects need to be delivered on challenging parcels of land, especially mountainous terrains that are in abundant supply across the country. Here, ARUP has risen to the challenge, supporting a client in what is a first of its kind solar plant development in the country. The challenge As well as presenting major health and economic challenges, the covid pandemic highlighted the fragility of the Philippines’ energy security. Power outages became rampant and regular as the national grid was not able to provide consistent service to the whole population, this prompting the government to accelerate projects on renewables.
For ARUP, a UK-headquartered firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technical specialists, that has been present in the Philippines since 1990, this prompted the need to project itself as the go-to expert in infrastructure works in the country. With vast experience working on renewables projects around the world, ARUP’s mission is to shape a better world by being what it terms a ‘critical friend’ for clients – a go-to organisation that can help resolve complex issues. This was put to the test when a client asked for support on developing a utility scale solar PV plant on an undulating hillside terrain. The solution Hillside solar farms represent an increasingly popular alternative to taking up large, flat swathes of land – they increase the usability of awkward terrain, provide clean renewable energy to the grid and improve employment opportunities for local communities. In this instance, ARUP was working with a contractor that had never developed a solar power plant, much less on a hillside, the project also being the first of its kind in the Philippines. The company also lacked the exact experience, but it was able to draw on the lessons it learned from developing complex projects on very similar kinds of terrain and its extensive solar design knowledge to make it work – indeed, ARUP has garnered a reputation for mastering complex projects, and applied the same process of critical thinking and creativity to this development. First, it had to identify the risks and challenges of the
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EIC Survive and Thrive
2023