A Singaporean independent power producer (IPP) plans to develop 2GWp of solar PV projects in the Philippines by 2030, with 500MW already under development.
Athein – a recently established joint venture (JV) IPP between four southeast Asian companies – has said it is developing 500MW of commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects in the Philippines, with a view to establishing a 2GW portfolio by the end of the decade.
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The JV was established in December 2022 between Saudi Arabian ATAD Energy Company – a material and chemical supplier for mining operations – Singaporean entity Hexagon Holdings, Vietnamese PV company Inpos and Philippines solar supplier Invenic. Its bases are in Singapore and Hanoi.
Athein’s co-founder and CEO Milan Koev said: “Philippines’ new administration sends some game-changing signals to the industry. President Marcos shows a clear commitment towards renewable energy and with foreign ownership bottleneck solved, we will see an exponential growth of domestic and foreign investment in the country.”
Last November, the Philippines amended its regulations to relax laws around foreign ownership of renewable energy projects and paved the way for greater foreign and private investment in the sector. The news was covered at the time by our sister site, EnergyStorage.news.
In January, a group of Chinese companies – including state owned conglomerate Energy China – announced a US$13.7 billion plan to invest in renewable energy, storage and transmission in the Philippines. The country is on track to become the dominant ASEAN country for renewable energy generation, forecast to have over 17GW of solar PV alone installed by 2030.
Edmund Yen, co-founder and CCO of athein said: “The existing grid infrastructure remains an obstacle for connecting large scale projects, particularly outside of Luzon Island, thus we are considering multiple alternative solutions, such as micro-grids and battery storage systems.”
The Philippines’ grid – which is 40% owned by the Chinese state grid operator – was discussed as a point of improvement by energy secretary Raphael Lotilla in January at the announcement of the US$13 billion Chinese investment.
Athein is registered in Singapore, which has recently been building out its plans to import 4GW of renewable energy by 2035 mainly due to the limited land available for projects in the city-state. 1GW of energy imports were given provisional approval by the Energy Market Authority last month.