The investment will be channeled towards better power grids, energy-efficient buildings, solar energy, and carbon dioxide reuse and capture. This is in line with the inter-agency Energy Innovation Programme Office’s aim to add S$1.7 billion and 7,000 jobs to the Singapore economy by 2015.

This round of funding follows an earlier shot in the arm of S$140 million by the NRF in the clean energy sector.

EDBI was established in 1991 as the independent equity investment arm of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) and Vertex is the venture subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, a Singapore Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF).

Innovalight is in the clean technology space, and sells silicon ink-based high efficiency solar cell materials and technology. Its proprietary nanotechnology-based silicon ink and processing technologies allow crystalline silicon solar cell manufacturers to dramatically boost output capacity, solar cell performance as well as reduce costs with a simplified additional step to already installed manufacturing lines.

Apart from venture funding, Innovalight also received additional development funds from the US Dept. of Energy.

Asia’s energy consumption represents one third of the world’s, yet this demand has not been met. This has been a problem as energy consumption has generally been on the rise in Asia over the last 40 years. But with the increasing urbanization of Asia, and especially that of China and India, this consumption is expected to rise further. This is no new news.

There is a need to meet this increasing energy demand and we have always looked to oil in fulfilling this demand. But oil consumption is unsustainable. There has been no new major oilfield discovery in the last couple of years. Even though there have been small finds in Brazil fairly recently, these finds would not solve the world’s energy consumption problem. However, there might be ways to produce more oil, but these methods would lead to oil costing $200-$300 a barrel. This price tag for energy just does not represent financially viable solutions as of now. Thus, there is obviously a great urgent need to find better ways of trying to meet the huge energy demand of Asia.

Asia’s increasing urbanization also means increasing urban transportation. As transportation is a significant source of CO2, transport-related CO2 is expected to increase steadily because of China and India. The negative impact on the environment is ever-increasing.

Oil is cheap now. (Click picture to enlarge.)

But change is happening. More and more electric vehicles are on the roads. However, this change is not as fast as one might have hoped for. For example, it takes up to 12 hours to charge a car before you can take it out on the roads; whereas the time needed to charge scooters can take only an hour. This inconvenience does not make it viable for many people to switch to electric cars even if they are interested to do so. This means a greater challenge for clean energy entrepreneurs as it is often not the case that the technology is not ready and commercially viable, but that they are not consumer-friendly yet.

Investment opportunity. (Click picture to enlarge.)

Another interesting question posed from the floor was whether the airline industry is following suit with the move towards clean energy. Airliners are more complicated than scooters and cars because they need much more energy to move a lot more mass through the sky. Fuel needed thus needs to strike a balance between the ability to provide this energy as well as weight. Oil, being a very dense fuel and being relatively light, is a good choice for airlines. However, because of the airline industry’s special fuel needs, it is harder for airlines to adopt clean tech right away. The example of the first commercial test flight by Virgin Atlantic Airways using jet fuel made with coconut oil and and Brazilian babassu nuts was a successful one. Perhaps in time to come, we’ll be able to fly without leaving a carbon footprint!

Speaker is Ron Mahabir from Asia Cleantech Capital.

This initiative called “Asia Forum for Clean Energy Financing” seeks to nurture individuals/teams/startup companies with environmentally beneficial business proposals with the eventual hope of transforming them into reality.

Eligibility
Any persons or company resident or actively operating and/or registered in any ASEAN country may participate in the Asia Forum for Clean Energy Financing. While there is no restriction on the size of the company / sponsor the award is designed to reflect excellence in new ventures.

Focus of Business that will be considered
The business must promote clean energy technologies, products or services that would in general include:
- Biomass
- Biogas
- Solar
- Wind
- Geothermal
- Hydropower
- Tidal / Ocean
- Energy efficiency
- Distributed generation
- Waste-to-energy
- Emission reduction

Competition Categories
Only business opportunities that require total (initial) capital in excess of US$1 million will be considered.

Acceptable Business Plans
Plans eligible for the Forum, may include, but are not limited to:

- New venture/new business
- Merger or acquisitions, including leveraged buyouts, which will lead to a turnaround, roll-up, or some other significant change that adds value to the current business
- Joint venture, alliance or network-based business (e.g., create new entity from current enterprises)

View more guidelines.

Submit your application and executive summary by 22 December 2008. See www.cleanenergy-financing.com for further instructions.

Short-listed candidates will be offered one-on-one coaching to create financially, socially, and environmentally viable business proposals.
Finalists will be invited to the Forum on 4 March 2009 in

Singapore in order to make presentations on their business proposals in front of potential investors and financiers.

Awards will be presented to proposals with high business potential, as chosen by a panel of judges at the conclusion of the Forum.

The Forum is organized by the Climate Technology Initiative (CTI), CTI’s Private Financing Advisory Network (CTI’s PFAN), the International Center for Environmental Technology Transfer (ICETT), ReEx Capital Asia, the Sustainable Energy Association of Singapore (SEAS), and the USAID ECO-Asia Clean Development & Climate Program (ECO-Asia).