Malaysian renewable energy (RE) developer Ditrolic Energy Holdings Sdn. Bhd. has secured investment backing from global asset management company BlackRock’s Climate Finance Partnership (CFP), its flagship public-private finance vehicle.
Ditrolic Energy said in a statement on Wednesday that the duo have entered into an agreement in which CFP will back Ditrolic Energy’s expansion to build commercial and industrial (C&I) and utility-scale solar assets throughout emerging markets in Asia Pacific.
The partnership seeks to facilitate realization of Ditrolic Energy’s targeted 1 GW+ pipeline of solar projects, increasing Ditrolic Energy’s targeted total capacity to 5GW+ pipeline of solar projects in Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as investment and expansion of its flagship 360° Clean Energy Solution, EnerLoop, by enabling technology for Carbon Tracking, Battery Energy Storage System and Green Electricity Sales.
With this new partnership, Ditrolic Energy intends to make Malaysia its investment hub to actively invest into key energy transition projects around its approved markets in the Asia Pacific region including Malaysia’s National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) programe where Ditrolic Energy plans to mobilize significant amounts of capital private investment with the aim to accelerate and reduce the associated cost of energy transition for the country.
“We are committed to playing a key role in Asia’s energy transition. We are grateful for BlackRock’s support, because the investment in Ditrolic Energy enables us to rapidly increase scale and maximize value to support transition to low carbon economies throughout multiple markets,
“With the capital raised and private investment to be mobilized, Ditrolic Energy would be in a prime position to undertake key energy transition projects in Malaysia and other Southeast Asia countries,” said Tham Chee Aun, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of Ditrolic Energy.
Founded in 2009, Ditrolic Energy is one of the largest renewable energy developers in Malaysia and Southeast Asia and runs a fully-integrated value chain from project development, financing, engineering and construction through to operations and maintenance (O&M) and asset management.
To date, Ditrolic Energy is operating, constructing more than 450MW of solar assets in Malaysia, other Southeast Asia countries, Bangladesh and China.
With CFP’s partnership, Ditrolic Energy takes position as one of the leading pure-play energy transition companies in the country.
CFP is a unique partnership among BlackRock and the governments of France (AfD), Germany (KFW) and Japan (JBIC) through their respective development finance institutions, as well as leading US impact organizations.
CFP brings together public, private and philanthropic sectors to mobilize significant blended capital into climate infrastructure, targeting investment in non-OECD countries
across Asia, Latin America and Africa.
“Ditrolic Energy holds a proven solar development track record in this diverse region,
“Our partnership presents an attractive opportunity to mobilize more capital into climate infrastructure in emerging markets and accelerate national ambitions to achieve net zero economies,” said Valerie Speth, Asia Pacific (APAC) Co-Head of Climate Infrastructure, BlackRock.
According to the statement, Asia Pacific accounts for 40 percent of the world’s carbon emissions.
Countries including Malaysia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines have strong power market fundamentals and increasingly pro-renewable regulatory regimes.
Thus, the partnership announced aims to bring about more development, as well as construction of greenfield renewables capacity to support growth in emerging markets.
According to the statement, Malaysia’s renewable energy generation goal stands at 31 percent by 2025 and 70 percent by 2050 under the new National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR), with an intention to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.
The nation’s domestic oil and gas reserves are expected to be depleted by 2029, driving up importation of fossil fuels for power generation, while raising electricity tariffs.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh is expected to reach 30 percent renewable generation capacity by 2030 and is pivoting towards gas, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and renewables, with the aim of generating an additional 2.7GW of renewable energy.
This could contribute to about 10 percent of the new-build pipeline on a capacity basis.
It is noted that Indonesia plans to achieve 23 percent of renewables in its electricity mix by 2025, and at least 31 percent by 2050, according to its Electric Supply Business Plan.
It is also noted the Philippines is aiming for 3.6GW of capacity allocated to commercial operation in both 2024 and 2025, rising to 4.4GW in 2026.
The partnership secured $673 million in commitments from a global consortium of investors including governments, philanthropies, and institutional investors in an oversubscribed final fundraise, exceeding the initial target of $500 million.
BlackRock currently manages over $50 billion of infrastructure client asset under management (AUM) is comprised of infrastructure equity, debt and solutions, and has grown both organically and inorganically since inception in 2011.
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