The company will spend USD$82 million to develop a solar farm with a capacity of about 40 megawatts (MW), said Martin Parodi, head of investment of Enfinity Asia Pacific. It will set up a company in Thailand in two months to oversee the project at a location, which is still to be finalized. Construction is expected to start this year.
The company will also invest in projects in South Korea and Taiwan this year. It has allocated USD$300 million for three Asian solar farms, Mr Parodi continued. "We are investing in Thailand as the first country in Asia. So far, we have focused on doing business in Europe and the Americas." He continued: "We have seen huge opportunity for renewable energies in Thailand where the government aims for renewable sources to provide 20 percent of energy consumption by 2020."
A 15-year renewable energy development plan is projected to more than triple the share of renewable fuels in overall energy demand from about six percent at present. The company is due to begin its investments in Malaysia and the Philippines next year.
As Enfinity plans to further expand its presence in Asia, Mr Parodi said that a recent resolution from the National Energy Policy Council to cut adder rates for solar projects from 8 baht to 6.5 per unit over the 10-year period might hurt Thailand's attractiveness for renewable-energy investments.
Annex Power Ltd, a renewable energy contractor covering Indochina, also said regional competition for investment in renewable energy has intensified with neighboring countries offering incentive packages. Malaysia recently introduced an adder scheme while the Philippines plans to follow suit in the next four to eight weeks, he said.
Annex Power's three-megawatt Yanhee Solar Power project was commissioned this week as the first PV solar project to open in Southeast Asia. "Renewable energies in Thailand are currently at the most advanced stage among Asean countries and it is one of the leaders in Asia, given government support and adder structure that makes projects more feasible," said Daniel Gaefke, a director at Annex Power.
"We are waiting the final outcome from Malaysia and the Philippines. Certainly, the competition will be increased." Annex Power has participated in seven renewable projects in Thailand. as well as others in Singapore and Germany. The Bangkok-based contractor aims to expand its business to Malaysia and Vietnam.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.