Philippines

While near neighbours, the electricity generation of the countries of Southeast Asia couldn’t be further apart. Indonesia burns locally mined coal, Malaysia has reserves of oil and gas, while populous Singapore, Vietnam, and the Philippines, depend on fossil fuel imports. They could all benefit from increased solar imports, but higher grid capacities and interconnection are key for an opportunity to unlock the power of the sun.

The government of the Philippines has introduced a new preferential dispatch policy for renewable energy in the country’s wholesale electricity spot market. It has also started to amend the Renewable Energy Act to remove a 40% ownership cap on foreign investments in clean energy projects.

A solar PV and battery energy storage project planned for the New South Wales Central West tablelands has achieved a major milestone with project developer ACEN Corporation approving $800 million for the construction of the 400 MW Stubbo Solar Farm.

Indonesia will have to get to work installing more than 24 GW of solar this year – and every year – if the region is to achieve the 2.1 TW to 2.4 TW of photovoltaics the International Renewable Energy Agency has estimated it will require to achieve a net zero carbon energy system by 2050.

Prime Infra recently acquired a 500 MW pumped storage hydropower project in Rizal province in the Philippines. The company is also developing a 1.4 GW facility in the country.

Solar Philippines, a Manila-based PV module manufacturer and project developer, is looking to secure at least 2,500 hectares of land to expand its 500 MW flagship solar project to 4 GW.

The Australian arm of Philippines-based energy company AC Energy has secured a $100 million loan facility which will be used to accelerate the development of clean energy projects in Australia with the company seeking to grow its renewables capacity to 20 GW by 2030.

The main winner of the first renewables auction in the Philippines was developer Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corp. (SPNEC), which secured five solar projects, or 1.35 GW of capacity.

Eight of the 24 bidders in the latest renewables auction in the Philippines are focusing on solar, along with eight bidders looking at wind, seven linked to run-of-river hydro, and one connected to biomass.

Philippines-based Prime Infrastructure Holdings has unveiled plans to construct a massive solar farm and energy storage project featuring up to 3.5GW of PV backed by up to 4.5GWh of battery energy storage in the Southeast Asian nation.