SEAS once again was the supporting partner for CTI PFAN Asia forum for clean energy financing, which is held in Singapore annually. In its fourth staging since its inception, this financing forum for clean energy project and technology developers has grown from strength to strength. Held at the Orchard Hotel Singapore, this year’s 10 finalists came from India, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, and Nepal. They pitched their business ideas to more than 100 investors. The projects seek to raise financing for deployment of a range of clean and renewable technologies including biomass, hydro, solar, wind, biogas and energy access, mostly in developing and rural communities that have little or no access to power.

The winners of the competition were Vinaforest, who convert agricultural forestry wastes into industrial coal – making sustainable fuels. One of the second runners up, Invictus Solar from India, manufactures PV modules and systems. Theirs is the first private grid that connects to the rice mill industry solar power plant in Andhra Pradesh, consisting of approximately 400 parboiled rice mills in the district.

Winners Vinaforest from Vietnam (L). All the finalists (R).

The investors who came were keen to further discussions with the finalists, and even the other companies who attended the event but were not taking part in the business plan competition finals. The investors saw the value that all the companies brought and their unique business models that solved a pertinent energy issue and yet made good economic sense did not fail to impress.

SEAS supports events like ACEF because we want to help clean technologies get into the market. Only with proper financing can projects take off to become commercially viable, profitable and scalable. SEAS chairman Mr Edwin Khew said in his opening speech at ACEF that “Singapore is delighted to have established itself as Asia’s financial hub and thus provided with an opportunity to develop itself into a financing platform to support initiatives such as AFCEF and the professionally mentored projects that will be showcased at ACEF”. One of SEAS’ missions is to develop the sustainable energy industry, and by facilitating more projects, the industry will grow further with more businesses in it, which will in turn encourage more innovators to join.