CHOOSING PH. Sol-Go, Inc. founder and chief executive officer Scott McHugo shares the company's plans in the Philippines in a press interview at Fairmont Hotel in Makati City on Tuesday (March 12, 2024). McHugo is part of the 22 high-level trade mission of the US Department of Commerce to Manila. (PNA photo by Kris M. Crismundo)
MANILA – Silicon Valley-based Sol-Go Inc. has chosen to build its new solar panel factory in the Philippines over manufacturing hubs in the region like China and Vietnam.
Sol-Go founder and chief executive officer Scott McHugo, who is part of the Presidential Trade and Investment Mission led by United States Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, told reporters here on Tuesday that its decision to bring the investments to the Philippines is built on trust.
Sol-Go has been operating in the Philippines since 2014, building a customer base for its ultralight weight solar panels, especially built for transport needs.
Before putting up its own factory, McHugo said Sol-Go was using contract manufacturers to build solar panels until the company registered intellectual property (IP) rights for the technology.
“So when we reached the point where Sol-Go has to set up a factory for ourselves to implement this IP… we were invited to set up this factory in Vietnam, in Turkey, and in [the] US,” he said.
“[The] US, unfortunately, is too expensive. And I didn’t know anybody in Turkey, and I didn’t know anybody in Vietnam. So the trust level is super important,” the firm’s founder added.
Sol-Go’s factory in the country is in one of the export zones of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) in Batangas, which started operation in January this year.
Half of the investments in the Batangas plant were funded by Filipinos and half were investments from the US.
He said the cost of producing the solar panel in the country has beaten the production cost in China.
McHugo said Sol-Go targets to triple the headcount and capacity of its Batangas factory, which currently has 15 workers and produces 15 megawatts of solar panels.
This year, the company eyes to increase its production capacity to 50 MW, he added.
For the current plant and expansion activity this year, Sol-Go has earmarked USD500,000 for its Philippine operations.
McHugo said the Batangas factory has a total capacity to produce 150 MW of solar panels. It will need an additional USD5 million to reach the maximum capacity in two years.
These Philippine-made, high-tech, and ultralightweight solar panels are exported to the US, Canada, Europe, Middle East, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
“The next place we want to sell is here,” McHugo said.
“I’m a huge proponent of the panels that we make in the Philippines. Let’s make them in the Philippines… (T)here’s a lot of upside of having to build it here in your own country for a number of economic reasons,” he added.
In an interview with CNBC Wednesday, McHugo said with the company’s connection with Filipino partners, Sol-Go does not see the need to send expats to run the Batangas plant.
“We wanted the factory to be fully run by local people,” he noted. (PNA)
