That’s how Via Verde looks like. It’s a solar-powered mass housing community in the municipality of Santo Tomas in Batangas province — the first of its kind according to its builder Imperial Homes Corp. (IHC).
It’s a step forward for the low-cost and socialized housing builder IHC, which allotted P600 million for the project and tapped Belgium’s Enfinity Group as its partner.
The community opened its doors yesterday with a grand launch.
In there would be 1,000 homes — row houses and two-bedroom townhouses — planted on a three-hectare property.
Those homes are already equipped with 500-watt solar panels, allowing buyers to enjoy lower power rates through a leaseback program.
“[T]hese solar-powered homes will dramatically reduce the cost of electricity and provide a greener environment for our low-cost housing projects,” Emma M. Imperial, IHC president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Solar energy is ideal for communities like Via Verde because of its clean and sustainable nature, she said.
“It actively contributes to the decrease of harmful greenhouse gas emissions. By not using any fuel, solar energy does not contribute to the cost and problems of the recovery and transportation of fuel or the storage of radioactive waste,” she said.
IHC first bared this flagship development in November last year, when Ms. Imperial said the project will lower the owner’s electricity rates by at least P1 per kilowatt-hour.
The Via Verde project forms part of IHC and Enfinity’s goal to install solar panels to 10,000 homes in several mass housing communities in the Luzon region within seven years.
The first 2,500 units include Via Verde and two other projects: a 478-unit project in Iriga City, Camarines Sur and 1,022 houses in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija.
These are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The remaining 7,500 units will be located in several developments in Legazpi City, Albay and Silang, Cavite. It will also include the expansion of the Iriga project.
Under the agreed setup, Enfinity Group will operate and maintain the 500-watt facility on the rooftops.
But residents have an option to tap the renewable energy developer should they decide to hike the capacity of their solar facility.
IHC first built low-cost homes in parts of Bicol Region, specifically in Albay, Camarines Sur, Camarines Norte, Sorsogon and Catanduanes.
In 1993, the company started expanding and pushed through with development of properties in Las Piñas, Cavite, Batangas, Laguna and Nueva Ecija.
The company has so far built 15,000 homes of mixed economic and middle-class housing projects.
Meanwhile, Enfinity Group was established in 2005 to engage in development of solar technologies in Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific.
Its local unit, Enfinity Philippines Renewable Resources, Inc. is looking to develop more than 20 solar projects in the country.
