Growing concern over climate change is helping SET-listed Prime Road Power, an operator of solar farms and provider of solar panel installation services, expand its business, with the aim to increase clean power generation capacity to 1,800 megawatts across Asia within five years, says chairman and founder Somprasong Panjalak.
The company's current capacity is 307.5MW.
Part of the new capacity will come from Prime Road's energy projects in Taiwan, where the authorities are promoting investment in clean energy, said Mr Somprasong.
The Taiwanese government plans to increase renewable power generation capacity to 20 gigawatts by 2025, up from 7.7GW at present.
Prime Road Power operates four solar farms in the country. It plans to add new capacity of almost 300MW over the next few years through projects including the 200-MW Miaoli Lake West solar farm, with investment worth US$400 million.
The company also sees opportunities in Southeast Asia.
In Cambodia, Prime Road Power runs the 77-MW Kampong Chhnang solar farm. Mr Somprasong said the country needs more power supply to serve its people as only 86.4% of the population can access the electricity network.
The company also operates a 0.9GW rooftop solar power business in Indonesia where the government, like Taiwan's government, is eager to increase power generation capacity from renewable energy.
The Indonesian government plans to increase the capacity to 3GW, up from 0.3GW at present. It aims to achieve a net-zero target, a balance between greenhouse gas emissions and absorption, by 2060.
Domestically, Prime Road Power and the Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand formed a joint venture named Prime Industrial Energy to promote solar power development at industrial estates, part of efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the manufacturing sector.
Former prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha vowed in 2021 Thailand would seriously deal with climate change and strive to reach carbon neutrality, a balance between carbon dioxide emissions and absorption, by 2050.
Prime Industrial Energy is expected to be awarded solar power development contracts, with combined capacity of 30MW, within this year, said Mr Somprasong.
Prime Road Power expects its revenue to grow by 30% to 1.4 billion baht this year from 1.1 billion in 2022, thanks to its capacity expansion, according to chief finance officer Piroon Shinawatra.