In the sun-drenched fields of Tarlac, Philippines, turmeric plants have been growing beneath solar panels for years now — and nobody complained. No, seriously. The panels kept producing electricity while the turmeric kept growing, and nobody had to choose between food and power. That's the whole idea behind a new approach called agrivoltaics, and the Philippines just took a giant leap forward with it.
The country is now home to one of Southeast Asia's first commercial agrivoltaic projects at full scale. Citicore Renewable Energy Corporation built a nearly 200-megawatt solar facility in Batangas that generates clean electricity while farmers can still grow crops on the same land. The project also includes battery energy storage, making it one of the first in the region to move agrivoltaics beyond small research plots and into real commercial operation.
This matters because land is precious in the Philippines. The country has limited farmland, and as cities grow and energy demands increase, developers often face a tough choice: build solar farms or protect agricultural land. Agrivoltaics offers a third option — do both.
Citicore didn't jump straight into the massive project. First, they ran small trials at their solar sites in Tarlac, testing whether farming could actually work inside operating solar facilities. They grew shade-tolerant, high-value crops like turmeric under the panels and monitored everything — soil conditions, how well the ground held moisture, and ground temperature under the partial shade. The goal was simple: figure out if crops could grow commercially without interfering with electricity generation.
The results looked good. The modified microclimate — the cooler, shadier conditions under the panels — actually helped some crops. Lessons learned from Tarlac directly shaped how Citicore designed the bigger Batangas facility, influencing how far apart they spaced the panels, how high they mounted them, and which crops would work best.
Most agrivoltaic projects around the world remain small — research farms or demonstration sites used mainly to study the concept. Commercial projects at utility scale are still rare, especially in Southeast Asia. The Philippines is among the first countries in the region to build one that size, which means developers elsewhere can now study real operational data from a working project.
Of course, questions remain. Long-term crop productivity, water needs, maintenance costs, and whether the economics work for everyone involved still need answers. Different crops respond differently to panel shade, so designs will have to match local conditions.
But for now, the Philippines has shown that clean energy and food production don't have to compete. A single piece of land can now grow turmeric in the shade of solar panels while powering thousands of homes nearby — and that might be one of the most practical ideas to come out of the country's renewable energy push.