ACEN Corp., the power arm of the Ayala Group, eyes more international renewable energy projects in the next six to eight months, a top executive said over the weekend.
“I can see a few projects which should be ready for investment decision in the next six to nine months… I do expect more investments overseas this year,” ACEN International chief executive Patrice Clausse said.
Clausse said the fresh investments would likely come from existing RE partners.
“It’s hard to forecast the future in terms of new partners. I think certainly with existing partners, and on our own I can see projects reaching investment decision,” he said.
ACEN has been embarking on an aggressive expansion overseas.
The company plans to roll out 5,000 megawatts of RE projects in Australia, its second largest footprint outside the Philippines.
ACEN also plans to build 3,000 MW in Indonesia and other markets, 2,000 MW in Vietnam and 2,000 MW in India by 2030.
ACEN president and chief executive Eric Francia said the company would continue to grow its presence in key markets aside from the Philippines.
“Onshore solar and wind will remain our core energy technologies, complemented by investments in new technologies such as battery energy storage, floating solar, and offshore wind,” Francia said.
ACEN is building 8 MW of RE capacity in the Philippines until 2030.
Francia said about 600 MW of RE capacity is already operating, while around 1,000 MW is under construction. About 70 percent of these projects will soon be operational.
Francia said the Philippines would remain as ACEN’s core market with 40-percent of the 20,000 MW target by 2030.
“If you look at last couple of years, we’ve been starting close to one gigawatt of new projects every year…Today, we already have a little over 4 GW of capacity both operating and under construction,” Francia said.
“At some point, we have to ramp up or step up or go beyond 1 GW per year mark because if we stay at 1 GW per year with 8 years to go, we’re not gonna get to 20 GW,” he said.
Francia said ACEN would accelerate its project development to nearly 2 GW annually towards mid to end part of the decade.
