Dragon Capital fund enters solar energy market

January 21, 2014 | 15:14

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Vietnam-based investment manager Dragon Capital’s clean development fund MBCDF has completed its fourth investment, a solar photovoltaic project in Thailand.

MBCDF, or Mekong Brahmaputra Clean Development Fund, has taken a stake in Symbior Elements Holding, directing the investment into the P.P. Solar (Nongno) plant in Khon Kaen, which generates up to 6.6 megawatts of electricity per day, Dragon Capital announced on January 17.

MBCDF and Symbior Solar, as well as other investors, will co-invest in six separate solar PV projects to be developed in Thailand from 2014-2015 with a total capacity of 30MW, added the fund manager.

Renewable energy currently accounts for 8 per cent of Thailand’s power capacity but that is set to grow to around 25 per cent by 2021. This will triple the country’s solar power capacity to 3,000MW and an estimated 20 per cent of renewables will be from solar power. There are currently 500MW of solar PV utilities installed in Thailand.

MBCDF director Joseph Hoess said, “This is an important milestone for MBCDF as it completes our set of investments in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam and it further establishes the fund’s expertise in clean technologies.”

MBCDF is a closed end limited partnership registered in Guernsey, the Channel Islands. It focuses on development using clean technology in the four Mekong countries and the Brahmaputra River region – Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka.

By By Tuong Thuy

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