October 29, 2013 9:18 pm
Energy services company (ESCO) Cofely GDF Suez said that they will be funding about five to eight energy efficiency projects in the Philippines every year in line with their $20-million loan with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for funding energy savings projects of small-scale companies in Southeast Asian countries.
Eric Graef, regional director of Cofely, told reporters in the sidelines of ADB Workshop on Energy Efficiency Services for buildings that besides the ongoing $2-million Waterfront Hotel project in Cebu and the $1-million for Waterfront Manila Pavillion Hotel and Casino, they are eyeing various buildings, infrastructure and developers in the country to finance the energy efficiency initiatives.
“We are looking at other possible projects with property developers like Ayala, SM, Filinvest, some factories, semiconductors industry, as well as groups like San Miguel Group and large panels of potential users of energy efficiency and savings financing,” Graef said.
Graef explained that the two Waterfront energy efficiency projects was initially funded by Cofely, but is now being funded by the $20-million loan from ADB, as well as their future projects to date.
On Tuesday, Cofely signed the multicurrency nine-year loan with the ADB, amounting to $20 million (P860 million) to fund energy savings initiatives for the buildings not only in the Philippines, but also in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
Besides the five to eight projects per year, Graef said that they will support energy efficiency efforts of the buildings, industries and governments in the country and would continue to do so for “long term” period.
“We would like to do it in a long time, for long term. We hope we will still be there for 20 years looking for energy savings project,” said the Cofely regional director for the Pacific.
Underspending
Manila-based lender ADB, on the other hand, said that there is an “underspending” and large potential in the energy efficiency, which require a total of $11 billion of investment to be able to solve energy efficiency concerns of businesses throughout Asean.
Manila-based lender ADB, on the other hand, said that there is an “underspending” and large potential in the energy efficiency, which require a total of $11 billion of investment to be able to solve energy efficiency concerns of businesses throughout Asean.
“[Cofely] borrowed directly to us, a total of $20 million in various currencies depending on which country the project is concerned—Philippine peso, Thai baht, Malaysian ringgit among others,” ADB Senior Investment Specialist Daniel Wiedmer said in an ambush interview.
Wiedmer also said that Cofely would make the multi-currency loan available to small-scale buildings, facilities and companies in the region as these small-scale businesses are not able to afford direct loans to ADB when it comes to energy savings and efficiency as they only do “big-scale” loans minimum of $20 million.
The development bank said in their statement that the $20-million loan and investment by Cofely can save an about 150,000 megawatt hours of energy, 90,000 carbon emissions, and yield average net savings of $10 million by 2019. source
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