Abu Dhabi clean energy company Masdar has signed agreements to develop renewable energy projects with a capacity of 1 gigawatts in the Philippines, marking its entry into the South-East Asian country.
The deal with the Philippines' Department of Energy and the country's Board of Investments outlines plans to develop solar, wind, and battery energy storage systems by 2030, Masdar said in a statement on Thursday.
“This partnership marks a new chapter in the longstanding relationship between the UAE and the Philippines,” said Dr Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and the chairman of Masdar.
“This agreement will create jobs, drive low-carbon socio-economic progress and expand global renewable energy capacity, in line with the UAE Consensus.”
The UAE Consensus was agreed at the UN Cop28 climate change summit in Dubai, at the end of 2023. It calls for the international community to transition away from fossil fuels to achieve net zero by 2050 and set time-bound targets to greatly increase global renewable energy capacity.
The Philippines aims to increase the share of renewable energy in its energy mix to 35 per cent by 2030 and 50 per cent by 2040.
It faces increasing energy demand due to population growth, economic expansion and increased digitalisation. Despite efforts to expand renewable energy, Philippines generates about 60 per cent of its electricity from coal.
This deal with Masdar follows an earlier agreement signed between the Philippines and the UAE in November 2024, during President Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s inaugural visit to the Emirates.
The announcement marks “a significant expansion of Masdar’s activities in Southeast Asia, a key strategic market”, said Masdar chief executive Mohamed Al Ramahi.
Masdar has been heavily focusing on South-East Asia. It has developed the largest floating solar facility in the region, the 145-megawatt Cirata plant in Indonesia. This facility can power an estimated 50,000 homes.
In February 2023, it entered the geothermal energy sector through a strategic investment in Indonesia's Pertamina Geothermal Energy.
The UAE clean energy company has also signed a landmark agreement with the Malaysian Investment Development Authority to develop 10 gigawatts of clean energy projects across the country.
Globally, Masdar’s operational, under-construction and advanced pipeline capacity reached 51 gigawatts at the end of 2024. It has a target of 100 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity by the end of the decade.
Masdar aims to achieve a production target of 1 million tonnes per year of green hydrogen – or its equivalent derivatives – in the UAE and worldwide within the next decade.
The company also announced several large acquisitions last year, including a €3.2 billion ($3.29 billion) deal to buy Greece’s Terna Energy.
“This year, there will be a lot of focus into working with our new partners [and] delivering the objectives of such transformative acquisitions,” Abdulaziz Alobaidli, Masdar's chief operating officer, told The National on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. “We will continue to explore the market. If there are any potential acquisitions that will add to Masdar and will add to our objectives, we certainly will look at that."
