Pentagreen Capital and British International Investment (BII) announced an $80-million joint financing to accelerate the rollout of utility-scale solar and battery storage projects across Southeast Asia in collaboration with leading international renewable energy development platform ib vogt Singapore Pte. Ltd. (ib vogt).
Pentagreen is the sustainable infrastructure debt financing platform established by HSBC and Temasek in 2021. BII is the UK’s development finance institution and impact investor.
The parties said of the amount, 50 percent or $40 million is allocated for the Philippines for the financing of a 100-megawatt-peak solar plant, with plans to commence construction for a second solar plant of 100 MWp soon.
The joint $80-million Development and Construction Facility will finance the development and construction of solar, hybrid solar and battery storage projects not only the Philippines but also in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian markets.
“We are delighted to join hands with ib vogt and British International Investment to provide capital for the scale up of clean energy investments in Southeast Asia,” Pentagreen Capital chief executive Marat Zapparov said.
“This landmark partnership demonstrates that innovative financing has a significant role to play in catalyzing capital to critical renewable infrastructure such as utility-scale solar and battery storage projects. Indonesia and the Philippines have been identified as the initial markets for this financing due to their strong renewable energy potential, supportive regulatory environments and growing demand for clean power. This is the kind of catalytic capital required to accelerate the construction of sustainable, competitive and secure energy infrastructure in the region,” Zapparov said.
The facility seeks to initially unlock the implementation of $300 million worth of RE projects with a total capacity of 260 MWp of power generation capacity and 175 megawatthours (MWh) battery storage.
The first project to be supported by the facility is a 100 MWp solar power project in the Philippines. The facility will provide crucial mezzanine financing enabling the project to progress swiftly into construction, bridging a key funding gap in the project’s capital stack and supporting the parallel deployment of senior debt from HSBC to the project.
The initial projects will add a combined 400 gigawatt hours (GWh) of clean electricity supply annually, resulting in an estimated 257,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions avoided.
“We’re excited to announce this new partnership with Pentagreen and ib vogt which will support the acceleration of clean energy access in Southeast Asia. This collaboration underscores our strong commitment to enhancing climate finance and mobilising more capital towards sustainable development in the region, particularly in high-need markets like the Philippines and Indonesia,” said Rohit Anand, BII regional head (Southeast Asia) and head of infrastructure equity said.