The recently established Singapore’s IPP platform Athein, a Joint-Venture partnership between four Southeast Asian companies, is all set to build over 500 MWp of utility scale and commercial and industrial solar power across Philippines. This JV between- ATAD, Hexagon Holdings and Invenic and their founders – Dong Hyunh, Milan Koev and Edmund Yen – aims at developing, building and operating assets in four key geographies – Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia and India through M&A deals and self-originated pipeline with a target to achieve 2 GWp of operational capacity by 2030.
Recently, the Philippines government announced exemption of rules to promote renewable energy in the country. Commenting on this move by the government, Athein’s Co-Founder and CEO –Milan Koev, said, “We will see an exponential growth of domestic and foreign investment in the country.”
Although, the country has the highest retail electricity tariffs in the region, but still Philippines, along with Singapore is believed to be amongst the most liberalized power markets in ASEAN. The factors like abundant irradiation areas and faster growth of power demand shows huge potential for its renewable sector.Further,the country has plans to add 20 GWp of renewable energy by 2030.
Edmund Yen, Co-Founder and CCO of Athein added, “We are currently developing multiple utility scale projects, the biggest of which is 300 MWp, but in the same time we are in the process of evaluating over 13,000 hectares of land, suitable for solar power plants. 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.”
Global Energy Monitor (GEM) has pointed out that by 2030 the Philippines would have added 17,809 MW of solar capacity and 7,856 MW of wind power, thereby becoming the top green power producer in the APAC region.
