10 Billion baht investment in renewable power
BCPG Plc, a renewable power producer, has announced plans to double its generating capacity by investing nearly 10 billion baht, according to its CEO
and president Bundit Sapianchai.
Over the past six years, the power business arm of the mostly state-owned
Bangchak Petroleum has been focusing on renewable energy and BCPG currently operates solar farms with a combined generating capacity of 138
megawatts, of which 118MW are in Thailand and 20MW in Japan.
The company has said it plans to increase its total capacity to 324MW within the next two years. This will mean BCPG will need to spend around 10 billion baht to expand by 186MW, although the expansion in Thailand itself will actually be relatively small.
BCPG will add a further 12MW capacity to its current solar farms in Ayutthaya and Ang Thong provinces, thereby bringing its Thailand total to 130MW.
The remaining 174MW of added capacity will be in Japan, at places such as Fukushima, Shiba and Oita.
BCPG is aiming to reach 1,000MW by 2020, which will clearly require further capital. “That is why we are going to raise funds through an initial public offering (IPO),” Mr Bundit has said.
This rapid and ambitious expansion by 2020 will not be limited to Thailand and Japan. The company is looking for opportunities in renewable energy throughout East Asia, mainly concentrating on South Korea, China, and Taiwan, as well as looking at AEC-member state the Philippines.
BCPG’s renewable energy plan will cover all the standard bases from geothermal to wind power and solar power.
As Mr Bundit noted, “There is plenty of room for renewable energy business here and abroad.”
The CEO said that many wind farm operators in countries like the United Kingdom have been shifting their development focus from Europe to emerging regions, including East Asia so it’s a good time to go out and compete for further business in this sector.
The BCPG business in Japan is run under its wholly owned unit BCPG (Japan) Co.
As far as Thailand is concerned, BCPG is waiting for the results of the auction
for a biomass project in three provinces in the deep South, with the winner to be announced in August (after this issue goes to press).
The total capacity for the three southern provinces will be 36MW.
BCPG also plans to bid to operate solar energy plants for state agencies which are awarded licences from the Energy Ministry, and these have a total capacity of 400MW.
BCPG will have 590 million units with IPO shares, thereby accounting for 30 percent of total shares.
