ADB inks $820m loan for 12 renewable energy projects in Thailand

This will fund solar and battery storage projects.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Gulf Renewable Energy Company Limited, a subsidiary of Gulf Energy Development Public Company Limited, have signed an $820m loan that will fund the construction of 12 renewable energy projects across Thailand.

In a statement, ADB said the projects include eight  ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) plants with contracted capacity of 393 megawatts (MW) and four ground-mounted solar PV plants with battery energy storage with contracted capacity of 256 MW and 396 MW-hours of energy storage.

The financing package, led by ADB as the mandated lead arranger and bookrunner, comprises $260m from its ordinary capital resources, and $529m in parallel loans from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, DEG - Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft (German Development Finance Institution), the Export-Import Bank of China, and KEXIM Global (Singapore), amongst others.

ADB will also provide blended concessional finance of $31.35m from the Clean Technology Fund.

Thailand eyes increasing its renewable energy generation to 50% by 2037. The projects supported by this financing are under Bangkok’s 5-gigawatt renewable energy feed-in-tariff program that will double the country’s installed wind and solar capacity by 2030.