Thailand’s Electricity Generating (Egco) banking on investment in Apex Clean Energy
Investment in Apex Clean Energy Holdings LLC is expected to help SET-listed Electricity Generating (Egco), the power generation arm of state-run Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, rack up revenue from Apex’s existing and future projects in one of the world’s largest markets for clean energy.
“We expect to gain significant benefits generated by Apex over the next couple of years,” said Thepparat Theppitak, president of Egco.
Egco completed the purchase of a 17.4% share in Apex in 2021.
This not only paves the way for the two companies to form a partnership, but also promises new revenue from Apex’s projects in the US.
The US is among the major markets for wind and solar power. In cooperation with Apex, Mr Thepparat believes Egco will benefit from a number of renewable energy projects developed and operated by Apex.
Egco can continue to maintain its investment in Apex until the end of concession periods for Apex’s clean energy projects or choose another option to sell the shares, he said.
As of June, Apex is committed to developing and operating 242 projects, with combined electricity generation capacity of 53,767 megawatts.
They include two facilities in operation — Great Pathfinder wind farm, with capacity of 224MW, and Mulligan solar farm with capacity of 70MW.
Projects under development include 19 energy storage systems, with combined capacity of 1,640MW, 139 solar farm projects, with capacity of 21,356MW and 77 wind farm projects, with capacity of 29,820MW.
The company is also preparing to develop another five projects — one wind farm, two solar farms and two energy storage systems. They have combined capacity of 657MW.
According to Egco, the US set a target to increase its renewable power capacity to 1,000 gigawatts within 2030.
Egco earlier announced it plans to buy two more energy assets in the US, part of efforts to increase electricity generation capacity by 1,000MW per year.
Mr Thepparat said the two assets will be a fossil fuel-fired power plant and a renewable power plant.
During the first six months of this year, the company added 101MW of new capacity, so it needs almost 900MW more in order to achieve its goal.
Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/business/general/2642091
