Audacious OWL Energy unfurls its wings wider to fuel Asia’s renewable energy boom

It takes great audacity for a young firm toventure out of the familiarity of its homemarket and establish a foothold in foreignshores. Bravery is exactly what OWL Energyneeded when it first decided to establish anoffice in the Philippines two years ago.

OWL Energy Managing Director TonySegadelli told Asian Power just how dauntingit was for the firm to leave the familiarityof Thailand, where the company originatesfrom, and make its first tentative steps intothe Philippine market. “To go away from our
home office where we have all our contacts,we have all our clients, and we knew themarket inside and out, to moving into a
market that we knew but where we had farless contacts—it is very, very pleasing to beable establish ourselves so quickly and to winsuch prestigious projects,” Segadelli says.

Remarkable track record
Fortune indeed favors the bold, for OWLEnergy was already able to clinch a numberof big projects and bag a prestigious award
in the short time that it has launchedoperations in the Philippines. OWL Energy, incollaboration with Bronzeoak Philippines and
ThomasLloyd, clinched the silver award underthe solar power project of the year categoryfor its SaCaSol project at the Asian PowerAwards 2014.

SaCaSol, the first utility-scale solar powerplant in the Philippines, is not the onlyfeather in OWL Energy’s cap. In the longer
term, the group has also been able toleverage on its roots by bringing some Thaiclients into the Philippine market. Its stellar
success in the Philippines also provided thenecessary springboard for its expansion intoJapan, where OWL Energy opened an officejust in May last year.

Soon after establishing its Japan office,OWL Energy inked a deal with GE Financialservices to provide oversight on multiple
solar energy projects under construction inthe country. Foremost among these is the230-megawatt solar project in Setouchi City,
Okayama prefecture, which will be the largestsolar project in Asia. The colossal projectis worth ¥90 billion (US$756.5m) and will
occupy 260 hectares of land.

“It’s going to take four years to build theproject, and so we are going to have a longtermbase there. GE is obviously a major
player in the global energy market so it’svery pleasing to get a project from them,”Segadelli notes.

In addition, OWL will be providing oversightfor construction of the 32MW Kumenan and42MW Mimasaka projects located in the
Okayama prefecture. OWL has been engagedon a long term basis to provide technicalsupport including monitoring construction,
reviewing documentation and providingregular reporting.

Robust expansion
But OWL Energy is not going to rest on itslaurels even after clinching the mammothsolar power deal. Segadelli states that OWL
Energy’s Japan operations are going to beintensely focused on solar energy in the nearterm.Following a slowdown in Thailand’s solarpower sector, OWL Energy is currentlyaiding several Thai clients in their search foropportunities in Japan’s robust solar powermarket.

OWL Energy is also exploring windpoweropportunities in Japan. Segadelli states thatthey are currently working with European
developers and a major EPC contractor tohelp them gain deeper knowledge of theJapanese market.In the longer term, OWL Energy will also beexploring Japan’s nascent biomass sector—there are a number of wood chip plants inJapan, but there are barely other biomassprojects at present.Following several yearsof robust growth, Segadelli also shared OWLEnergy’s plans for further expansion in thecoming years. “We’re looking at the wholeof Southeast Asia, but the one country we’refocused on more than others would beVietnam,” he says

He adds that OWL Energy is alreadyworking with a number of developersin Vietnam.“We’re working with somedevelopers there on working with convertingsome coal plants from firing anthracite coalandturning that into sub-bituminous becauseof a lack of anthracite in the country. Ifthat comes through, then we’ll use that toestablish an office in the country,” he notes.

Gaining goalposts
In the longer term, which Segadelliestimatesto be within the next couple ofdecades, OWL Energy is looking to establishan office in every capital city in East Asia anddiversify their business from purely powergeneration into its associated technologies.“For instance, last year we worked on acoalmining study in Myanmar, we worked onbuilding a distribution electrical system withina new city that’s being founded in Cambodia,and we’re just about to be assigned a projectfor a bioethanol power plant. So we’relooking much more through the energy sectorrather than just purely power generation,” hesays.

Within a few short years, OWL Energyhasproven time and again that power canindeedbe generated through wisdom.With its
expertise and proven excellence,OWL Energyindeed has plenty of opportunities to spreadits wings in its bidto power Asia’s booming
economies.