Sunseap founder’s firm teams up with Chinese nuclear giant on Indonesian solar import project
Frank Phuan’s Equator Renewables Asia is set to import clean power from the Riau Islands into Singapore
[SINGAPORE] Equator Renewables Asia – a new venture of solar veteran Frank Phuan – has teamed up with a unit of China National Nuclear Corp to import solar power into Singapore from Indonesia.
On Tuesday (Oct 28), Equator inked a cooperation framework agreement with CRE International (CREI), the renewables arm of the Chinese nuclear giant, to jointly invest in and develop a solar and battery project in the Riau Islands.
Phuan was the co-founder of Singapore solar firm Sunseap, which was acquired by EDP Renewables (EDPR) in 2022. In May, he bought over assets from EDPR’s Asia-Pacific unit to form Equator, which is now focused on regional energy import projects under the Asean Power Grid.
Equator has a conditional licence from Singapore’s energy regulator to import 400 megawatts of clean power into the city-state from Indonesia, via a subsea cable.
The Equator-CREI solar project is expected to generate 830 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of clean energy per year when completed by 2029, and includes a 1.2 GWh battery energy storage system (Bess).
This is part of Equator’s larger solar development in the Riau Islands that is expected to generate 2,100 GWh of clean energy annually – enough to power more than 350,000 Singapore households each year.
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Phuan signed the agreement with Sun Jinfeng, Singapore country manager of CREI, at the Asia Clean Energy Summit, held at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre as part of the Singapore International Energy Week.
Under the agreement, CREI will lead the generation-side investment, construction and operation of the solar and Bess facilities, while Equator will manage transmission and offtake coordination.
Phuan said: “We are exceedingly bullish on the demand for low-carbon energy in Singapore, and our vision from day one has been to position ourselves to meet this burgeoning need.”
CREI’s Sun said that the project will “showcase the potential of large-scale solar and storage integration in South-east Asia”.
Equator is among six players granted conditional licences by the Energy Market Authority to import clean energy from Indonesia into Singapore. The regulator has also granted conditional approvals to five projects seeking to import clean power from across South-east Asia and Australia.
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