The newest renewable energy (RE) financing publication, Impact Analysis and Review on Governance of Renewable Energy Financing Schemes in ASEAN, was launched last Tuesday, 29 November 2022. The report was prepared by the ASEAN Centre for Energy (ACE) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, under the ASEAN-German Energy Programme (AGEP) Phase II.

The event was attended virtually by government officials, development bank representatives, and energy experts from ASEAN Member States (AMS). Remarks from the Executive Director of ACE, Dr Nuki Agya Utama, and the Principal Advisor of AGEP, Mr Sergey Makarov, highlighted the importance of promoting the existing RE financial instruments and making the funding more attractive, effective, and sustainable.

Ms Monika Merdekawati from ACE presented the main barriers to RE investment which lay in the areas of regulatory issues, access to finance, and technical and labour issues. She also highlighted that to best tackle the associated risks and challenges of RE financing, policymakers can utilise the method of policy de-risking, financial de-risking, and direct incentives. Among these options, investing in de-risking processes is far more effective than providing direct incentives.

The panel discussion in this event was moderated by Ms. Rika Safrina from ACE, with panellists Dr Yaowateera Achawangkul from Thailand’s Energy Ministry and Ms Wei Huang from Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Besides the crucial of stable policy framework, the session also discussed the significance of a stable pricing framework with certainties for at least 20 years so that the financiers can then construct proper financial modelling, including the expected cash flow.

Moreover, the study endorsed by the ASEAN Renewable Energy Sub-Sector Network (RE-SSN) during their annual meeting in May 2022 also formulates the needed financing measure to achieve the goals in the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) Phase II: 2021-2025, which is to reach the RE target of 23% in total primary energy supply (TPES) and 35% in total installed capacity by 2025 and enhance the interconnectivity of ASEAN Power Grid. To find out more about the report, please access here https://aseanenergy.org/re-financing-publication/.