sfi con asia

Thailand’s B.Grimm Power has signed a cooperation agreement with Vietnam’s Xuan Cau to develop the largest solar PV project in Southeast Asia, standing at 420MW capacity in Tay Ninh, southwest Vietnam.

Major Thailand-based financier TMB Bank has issued the country’s first green bond, with the World Bank's IFC as the sole investor of the US$60 million bond, the funds of which will be used exclusively to finance climate-smart projects, particularly renewable energy.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is providing a roughly US$40 million project financing package for Vena Energy, formerly Equis Energy, to build four solar plants in eastern Indonesia, which are said to be the Southeast Asian country’s first utility-scale PV plants.

A nation made up of thousands of small islands should be a blessing to any off-grid renewable energy firm, but poor access to upfront financing makes Indonesia a tougher proposition than one would expect. To discuss the market, PV Tech caught up with Verania Andria, associate director, community renewable energy, Millennium Challenge Account Indonesia, which focuses on financing off-grid renewables in Indonesia with grant funding.

The opening bids in Malaysia’s 460MW large-scale solar auction have shown significant over-subscription with roughly 1,632MW of submissions.

The International Solar Alliance (ISA) is starting to make tangible progress after several countries agreed to support commissioning of a study on a common risk mitigation mechanism (CRMM) for PV generation.

SB Energy, a subsidiary of Japanese firm Softbank has partnered with Invenergy Japan to develop, finance and construct two large-scale PV projects in Japan.

Amaranto has launched an investment vehicle dedicated to acquiring PV projects in India and has secured exclusive rights to purchase a 110MW solar project in the West of the country for around US$80 million.

Finnish firm Fortum has commissioned a 70MW solar PV plant in the Indian state of Rajasthan, which it won last year at what was then a record low tariff of INR4.34/kWh (US$0.067).

French power giant Engie Group is partnering with three firms to develop various solar-related projects in Indonesia requiring US$1.25 billion investment.