Philippines inaugurates Phase I of MTerra Solar, world's largest integrated solar-plus-storage project

The Philippines has inaugurated Phase I of the MTerra Solar project in Gapan City, Nueva Ecija, energising 1,373 MW of photovoltaic capacity alongside 825 MW of battery energy storage with a total storage capacity of 3.3 GWh. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. led the inauguration ceremony on 14 July 2026 — which took place less than two years after he also led the project's groundbreaking in November 2024. Commercial operations were declared on 26 August 2026 for 600 MW of mid-merit capacity under the power supply agreement with Meralco.

Upon completion of all phases, MTerra is projected to reach 3.5 GW of solar generation paired with 4.5 GWh of battery storage — a configuration expected to make it the world's largest integrated solar-and-battery facility. But the numbers only half explain how a country that imports most of its fuel built the planet's biggest solar-battery plant in under two years. The rest of the story is about land, a utility that decided to own its own generation, and a British investor willing to write the largest greenfield cheque in Philippine history.

It started as a land bet

Long before MTerra had its current name, the land beneath it was being assembled by Solar Philippines, the developer founded by then-twenty-something entrepreneur Leandro Leviste. The company spent years accumulating plots across Nueva Ecija and Bulacan provinces — a contiguous site of roughly 3,500 hectares, chosen because it sits within reach of the Luzon grid's transmission corridors. The vehicle for the project was SP New Energy Corporation (SPNEC), and by 2023 most of the company's capital-raising was directed at what was then simply called the Terra Solar project.

Land was the project's hardest currency — and its slowest one. When construction eventually began, only around 45% of the required land rights had been secured, a constraint that shaped everything from phasing to grid connection. Building the world's largest solar plant on land you do not yet fully control is not a plan most developers would choose; it was the reality this one started from.

Meralco steps in

The project's turning point came in 2024, when Meralco — the Philippines' largest electricity distributor — moved to own the story rather than merely buy its output. Meralco's generation arm MGEN, through its renewable energy subsidiary MGreen, acquired majority control of SPNEC in May 2024 and consolidated its position further over the following months. Leviste moved from president to vice chairman; Meralco chairman Manuel V. Pangilinan took the helm. The logic was vertical integration: Meralco's customers needed power, and Meralco decided its answer would include a 3.5 GW solar field of its own.

The commercial anchor had been set earlier: a 20-year power supply agreement under which MTerra sells 850 MW of mid-merit capacity to Meralco — the contracted revenue that would later make the project financeable. In August 2024, the project secured green-lane certification from the Board of Investments, fast-tracking permits for a development of national significance.

The financing: a record equity cheque and a record loan

In September 2024, global infrastructure investor Actis signed an agreement to take a 40% equity stake in the project company, Terra Solar Philippines Inc., for approximately US$600 million — the largest foreign direct investment in a single greenfield infrastructure project in Philippine history. The deal closed on 17 March 2025, with UBS advising the Philippine side and Morgan Stanley advising Actis.

Alongside the equity, the project signed PHP 150 billion (roughly US$2.6 billion) of committed project financing with a syndicate of the largest Philippine banks — itself a record for greenfield infrastructure lending in the country. EPC contracts went to Energy China (China Energy Engineering Corporation), awarded in November 2024, with POWERCHINA also reported to be leading construction work on the solar side. Groundbreaking, led by President Marcos and Pangilinan, followed on 21 November 2024.

Building at record pace

What followed was eighteen months of construction that twice reset expectations for how fast a gigascale project can move. Power first flowed to the Luzon grid in March 2026. Exports were initially capped at 750 MW while transmission upgrades and grid integration work were finalised; NGCP's final certificate now confirms a grid connection of 950 MWac solar plus the 825 MW BESS, with the remaining 250 MWac to follow. Phase II is scheduled for completion in 2027, taking the site to its full 3.5 GW / 4.5 GWh build-out.

Storage as an energy-security instrument

The project addresses a structural challenge for the Philippines, which has historically relied on imported coal, liquefied natural gas and oil. The solar-plus-storage combination allows excess daytime electricity to be stored and dispatched during evening peak demand periods, reducing both import exposure and curtailment — and, unusually for the region, does so at mid-merit rather than peaking duty.

The Philippine market context matters for suppliers: the Department of Energy has awarded 605 renewable energy service contracts since 2022, requires co-located storage on new renewable projects, and its 10-year Green Energy Auction Program targets 25 GW of capacity between 2027 and 2035. Large integrated solar-plus-storage tenders are already translating that policy into operating assets. The government expects the project to generate approximately PHP 23 billion in economic value over the next decade through tax revenues, employment and community development programs. Once fully operational, the facility is projected to supply electricity to approximately 2.4 million households while preventing an estimated 4.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually.