MTerra Solar to power MGen’s REIT debut

Meralco PowerGen Corporation (MGEN) is advancing plans to tap the local capital market via a real estate investment trust to help finance its renewable energy buildout anchored on the landmark MTerra Solar project as it scales owned capacity from more than 5,000 megawatts (MW) today to over 10,000 MW by 2030.

MGEN Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel V. Rubio confirmed that a REIT listing is “one of the options” the company is weighing to unlock value from its operating solar farms and battery energy storage assets.

“We feel that the right timing is that when we deliver the first phase of Terra Solar — that’s when investors and the public will know that we’re capable of delivering on our promise,” Rubio told reporters.

The PHP 200,000,000,000 MTerra Solar project is designed to be among the world’s largest hybrid solar-plus-storage facilities, pairing 3,500 MWp of solar with a 4,500-megawatt-hour (MWh) battery energy storage system across Nueva Ecija and Bulacan.

Targeted for completion in 2027, the project is expected to deliver clean power to around 2.4 million households and avoid roughly 4.3 million tons of carbon emissions annually.

Rubio said MGEN is preparing a potential second phase and has acquired about 450 hectares in Nueva Ecija that could be integrated into Terra Solar 2 as the company expands its solar footprint.

“I don’t think Terra Solar 2 has to be in one location,” he added, noting the follow-up project aims to supply 1,500 MW alternating current (MWac) with 900 MWh of storage distributed across multiple sites to match utilities’ demand profiles.

Rubio underscored that MGEN’s growth supports Meralco’s broader sustainability agenda and stated, “I believe that’s going to go a bit higher. But the goal really is not to be as close as we can to the distribution utility’s earnings, but to make sure that we contribute to the overall sustainability strategy of Meralco.”

The REIT listing is targeted for the second half of 2026 to coincide with the delivery of Terra Solar’s initial phase and to bolster investor confidence in MGEN’s execution capability.

REITs allow sponsors to recycle capital by listing income-generating assets and redistributing proceeds into new projects, a structure that can accelerate the rollout of large-scale renewables and storage while broadening public ownership of clean energy infrastructure.