ACEN sets P900-B capital for massive RE pipeline (Sabong News)

To bring its planned 18,000 megawatts of renewable energy (RE) ventures into fruition, Ayala-led ACEN Corporation is penciling in a mammoth $18 billion, approximately P900 billion, capital outlay for the targeted solar and wind farm installations in Asian markets. ACEN President and CEO Eric T. Francia, in a briefing with the media, explained that the rule of thumb for solar and wind projects could be in the vicinity of $1.0 million per megawatt, hence, the whole RE development pipeline will entail colossal investments of $18 billion. Francia said that “a lot” of the planned 18,000MW would come from projects under construction and ultimately under operation. “But some of that will take a long time,” Francia noted. He explained that the parallelism to that is the land banking done in the real estate sector, or the process or aggregating parcels of land that will be utilized for future property developments. “Like the land bank of real estate, we think of the (RE) pipeline as a de facto land bank,” Francia said. In a related development, the Ayala energy firm has disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) that it secured the approval from its board on its plan to enter the United States RE market via a newly formed strategic partnership with UPC Solar & Wind Investments LLC and Pivot Power Management (PPM). That new investment tie-up, as emphasized by ACEN, will focus on pursuing “opportunities to acquire operating wind projects in the US and explore strategies for extending their useful life through preventative maintenance and repowering.” According to Patrice Clausse, president and COO of ACEN International, “the transaction is subject to usual and customary conditions precedent to closing.” He further stated “our aspiration is for the US to become a priority market for ACEN outside of Philippines over time.” He added, “This partnership will provide an exciting entry to the fast-growing US market, and we look forward to leveraging the combined expertise of ACEN and our new partners to make this a strong growth platform in the coming years.” The Ayala firm reiterated that the new business partnership “will target the acquisition of operating wind projects across various geographies in the US.” Tim Rosenzweig, chief executive officer of PPM, indicated that the partnership deal with ACEN “will help us grow our development and operating platform in the US,” as he cited the Ayala firm’s successful RE ventures in several offshore markets to date, including Australia, Vietnam and Indonesia. On ACEN’s medium-term RE development trajectory, Francia qualified that the company’s investment portfolio for the Philippine market could go beyond 7,000 megawatts if all targeted projects are concretized, it will comprise of the roughly 1,000MW current attributable capacity and the 6,100MW target integrated in the pipeline. “Beyond the 5,000MW (for 2025), we are now currently mapping our 2030 vision and roadmap. Of course, whatever number or target we come up with, we will announce in the next few months, we will for sure get a lot of that aspirational target from the existing pipeline of 18,000MW and we will continue to build that pipeline up to realize our vision that will communicate for the 2030 roadmap,” Francia stressed.