SEA’s $1.8b clean energy funding is going to the wrong places, report says

Across 2,043 renewable energy companies, only 258 have secured equity funding.

Southeast Asia's energy transition is not short of companies—it is short of capital reaching the right ones, according to a Tracxn report.

Across 2,043 companies in solar, electric vehicles (EVs), energy storage, and energy efficiency, only 258 have secured equity funding. Total capital raised is $1.8b, and 90% of it has gone to just two sectors.

Solar has taken $1.1b across 109 funded companies, EVs have taken $505m across 54, energy storage has received $119m, and energy efficiency has received $77m.

Storage and efficiency — the technologies that determine whether a grid can actually absorb and use renewable power — have together received $196m, or 11% of total funding.

Moreover, Singapore captures 78% of solar capital, 94% of storage, 99.5% of efficiency, and 67% of EVs, whilst Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines receive a marginal share.

Energy efficiency receives 7% of what solar gets. Only 6 of 54 funded efficiency companies have reached Series A — an 11% conversion rate, the lowest of any sub-sector.

Investor activity reflects the same bias, as there are 78 venture capital (VC) investors in EVs and 38 in solar, whilst storage has 41 and efficiency has 24.

Moreover, Vietnam's feed-in tariff (FiT) programmes from 2017 to 2020 took solar capacity from zero to 6.5 gigawatts (GW) through tax breaks and land-lease waivers.