Nov 15 2010
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is investing generously in solar projects in developing countries in Asia utilizing its Asia Solar Energy Initiative (ASEI), but encounters roadblocks.
The Bank has started its investment plans during May this year and has given over $3 billion to the Asian developing counties including Philippines, Thailand, India and China. Most of the participants in the Singapore Energy Expo explained the problems in convincing the solar investors who consider it financially unviable to invest in up coming countries.
ASEI is all set to draw the private sector investors and commercial banks to make financial investments in solar energy, regardless of the issues related to long term funding. According to Don Purka, a delegate of ADB and a panelist in the discussions, the commercial sector has met with problems in solar energy investment and continues to believe it risky to invest in solar energy. He predicted that India and other developing countries will finally receive investments from the commercial sector once the perceived risks are addressed. He added that ADB is planning to address the issue by providing partial guarantee to the risks and by offering capital funding. He further said that ADB will continue to get engaged in e solar projects and quoted how the Thailand Bangchak Solar Project received billions of dollars of loan to construct two solar powered plants in central Thailand.
Christophe Inglin, managing director of Phoenix Solar, Singapore, said that he anticipates an increase in the number of solar projects in Asia in three to five years period. He explained how the cost of installing solar systems is slowly edging towards grid parity and added that soon the cost of solar power production will equal the electricity generated utilizing fossil fuel. He added that such development will take place due to the availability of cost-effective solar modules, reduced installation costs and others.