The Silicon Review ^Asia

Sindicatum Renewable Energy Company is a developer, owner,and operator of clean energy projects in key markets that are perennially short of electricity, particularly in non-urbanized areas.At the core of SREC’s track record is the proven ability to identify, develop, invest, finance, and operate small-scale renewable energy projects in its target markets of South and South-East Asia. A key feature of each of SREC’s projects is a secure supply of fuel which ensures its projects are not constrained in their ability to generate power or exposed to fuel price risk.

Having developed and financed 17 renewable energy projects, SREC is preparing to expand its asset base with the addition of a number of development projects in South East Asia and India.

Why Sindicatum?

Sustainability lies at the heart of Sindicatum’s business. The company undertakesits work because it believes in the strength of its company, its business, and in the importance of what it does in helping nations achieve their dual goals of economic growth and protecting the environment. As a result, it is highly motivated to achieve its goals. Sustainability is crucial to its investment approach and to the ability to meet the expectations of its stakeholders. The theme of “resource scarcity” is central to its strategy. Sindicatum believes that, globally, economic development (and thus increasing demand for resources) will continue to strain natural resources worldwide.

Its investment thesis is based on the premise that such macro-trends will have an important influence on the pricing of increasingly scarce resources such as energy, water, agricultural resources,and clean air. Consequently,its aim is to produce long-term supplies of these sustainable products as well as related environmental commodities.

Trademark Projects

Solar Energy Projects:Sindicatum is building solar assets in India, the Philippines, Thailand,and Indonesia. Where possible, these are “bolted on” its existing sites and assets, leveraging its relationships with its current project partners. Some of its solar energy projects are Clark (Pampanga, Philippines), Patan (Gujarat, India), Jodhpur (Jodhpur, India) etc.

Wind Power:With increased reliability and continuously improving operations, wind generation capacity is expected to increase by 3.7GW by 2020 across Southeast Asia, with greater penetration in the following decade.

With the increase of efficiency, wind generation is moving rapidly towards grid parity with fossil fuel alternatives, which is expected by 2020 in the countries in which SREC operates. The wind has the advantage of being able to deliver electricity efficiently through wind farm sizes that are much smaller than comparable fossil plants, which offsets the impact of the intermittent nature of wind generation on the distribution and transmission systems. Example of the wind energy plant:Pamplona, Negros Oriental, Philippines.

Waste to Energy Projects: SREC develops, finances, owns, and operates waste to energy projects such as landfill gas-to-energy power plants which capture methane pollution from municipal waste sanitary landfills and then use it to generate clean electricity.

By partnering with landfill owners and other waste processors and generators, SREC has secure contractual ownership over any biogas that emanates from their waste streams. Materials that until recently were regarded as waste are now being sought out as vital to growth in an increasingly resource-constrained global economy.

Bagasse Cogeneration Projects: By partnering with sugar mills, SREC secures ownership of a captive agricultural waste (bagasse) which it can efficiently utilize in order to satisfy the sugar mill’s internal heat and power requirements whilst producing clean power for export. SREC plans to build a portfolio of more than 500MW of sustainable biomass projects by forming joint ventures with a number of leading sugar companies. To achieve this, SREC will invest in the installation of modern and highly efficient cogeneration equipment at existing or newly set up sugar mills, thereby maximizing the generation (and export) of clean power from the bagasse generated in the sugar mills.

While the sugar company contributes its power assets, SREC contributes capital and expertise to install modern and efficient equipment, hence significantly increasing power generating capacity. The projects benefit from a secure and captive fuel supply base comprising 100% of the host’s bagasse supplemented, if necessary, by biomass from within their area of sugar cane supply to allow for extended power generation beyond the sugar cane season.

Meet the Leader

Assaad Razzouk, Chief Executive officer:At Sindicatum, Assaad is responsible for overall strategy, stakeholder relationships, and the project investments managed by Sindicatum’s business units. Under Razzouk’s leadership, Sindicatum has developed a global portfolio of projects on a principal basis and established and grown business units in Bangkok, Beijing, Jakarta, Manila, New Delhi, Singapore, Taiyuan (Shanxi Province, China) and Washington D.C.

Assaad is a Board member of the Climate Markets & Investment Association, establishing CMIA’s Asia Chapter. Assaad is also a board member of the Association for Sustainable and Responsible Investing in Asia, and a commentator on climate change, natural capital, and clean energy.

From 1993 to 2002, Assaad was an investment banker at Nomura International Plc in London, where he was last Deputy Head of Global Corporate Finance. From 1988 to 1993, Assaad was at Price Waterhouse in New York City where his last position was as Manager, International Capital Markets.

“We understand renewable energy technologies and are capable of making rapid assessments of their viability in any given context.”