SINGAPORE - Singapore-based Vena Energy is aiming for a 2026 construction start for its 2 gigawatt (GW) solar and battery project in Indonesia’s Riau Islands, and is hoping to supply electricity to Singapore before 2030, chief executive Nitin Apte said.

The project reflects the growing ambition and scale of green energy investments in the region, Mr Apte told The Straits Times.

The renewable energy project developer has a large and growing pipeline of investments covering onshore wind and solar, offshore wind and battery storage. It is also looking to scale up green hydrogen production.

He said the Riau Islands project will cover between 2,000ha and 2,200ha, involve a subsea cable to Singapore and will be completed in phases by 2032. The battery storage system is expected to be able to store in excess of 8 gigawatt-hours of energy, making it the largest of its type in Asean.

In early August, Vena Energy signed a collaboration agreement with Shell Eastern Trading in Singapore, in which Shell would explore the import of some of the renewable power generated by the proposed Riau hybrid project.

Mr Apte said that Vena Energy plans to export up to 2.5 terawatt hours (TWh) of electricity annually to Singapore, and that Shell is in discussions with the Energy Market Authority (EMA) regarding an import licence.

This amount represents just under 5 per cent of Singapore’s total electricity consumption of 53.5 TWh in 2021, according to EMA figures.

Singapore plans to import up to 4GW of low-carbon electricity by 2035, and the EMA is considering a wide range of projects based on submissions under its request for proposal exercise that closes in end-December 2023.

Founded in 2012, Vena Energy has 80 projects with total operational capacity of 2.7GW in seven countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It has a development pipeline of 43GW.

In 2022, Vena Energy added 10 projects, totalling 562MW, to its operational portfolio.

“We are contracting demand that is probably two to three times what we were contracting five years ago,” Mr Apte said. “We see a definite acceleration and project sizes are getting bigger.”

He pointed to two reasons why the policy and investment landscape for green energy has improved in the region.

“One is the economics,” he said, pointing to the sharp drop in the cost of renewable energy.

“And number two is we can’t deny climate change.”

Still, the region needs investment in the trillions, not billions, to meet its growing energy needs and hasten the green transition, the Asian Development Bank and others say.

In April 2023, Vena Energy formally inaugurated its 272MW E2 Solar Project, Taiwan’s largest renewable energy project, and the company’s largest operating project to date. It was completed in 18 months.

In the Riau Islands, the company hopes to greatly scale up production of renewable energy components that will support Indonesia’s green energy ambitions and Vena Energy’s solar hybrid project.

To this end, in early August 2023, Vena Energy signed a framework agreement with China’s Suntech Power, which makes solar modules and solar cells; Powin, a US energy storage platform provider; and REPT Battero, a Chinese battery cell producer for energy storage systems.

Mr Apte, who has been at the helm of Vena Energy since 2018, said he sees plenty of other opportunities across the region and strong funding support.

The company is owned by Global Infrastructure Partners and its co-investors. Mr Apte says projects are financed locally, in local currency and Vena Energy also works with international banks, including DBS Bank and OCBC Bank.

It also launched a US$325 million (S$439 million) five-year green bond in 2020 and a further US$175 million green bond in 2021; both are listed on the Singapore Exchange.

Offshore wind has significant potential across the region, Mr Apte said. Vena Energy has 19GW of offshore wind projects in development in Australia, Japan, North Asia and South-east Asia.

In 2022, the company announced plans for a 2GW offshore wind project in the Australian state of Victoria. The Blue Marlin Offshore Wind Project in the Gippsland Basin is expected to be developed over several stages, with construction commencing in 2028.

“Everybody with a long coastline, which is most of Asia, has the opportunity to deploy offshore wind,” he said, but cautioned that it was still evolving technology in terms of deployment, installation and supply chains.

Battery storage is another growth area, especially in markets with large amounts of renewable energy capacity as storage is needed to help stabilise the grid.

Mr Apte said the company has 6GW of storage capacity in development with the main markets in Australia, Japan and Taiwan. Vena Energy completed the 100MW Wandoan battery storage project in Queensland in 2022, and is constructing a 159MW battery and solar project in South Australia.

Vena Energy is also developing a small hydrogen project in Gladstone, Queensland, after receiving an Australian government grant in 2022. Mr Apte said the idea was to scale up the project in phases, installing renewable energy to produce green hydrogen – which is created using renewable energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen – with the aim of eventually exporting hydrogen to Asia.

“The next phase of the green transition is being able to move energy,” he said.

“It is fundamentally taking renewable energy where you have an excess... (to) places such as Japan or Korea, which do not have a lot of land and do not have a long coastline, and being able to move it there. Our take is that we absolutely have to participate in this space.”