COPENHAGEN – Danish solar firm Obton A/S is eyeing to join a growing number of solar power investors in the thriving renewable energy sector of the Philippines.

According to Philippine Ambassador to Denmark Leo M. Herrera-Lim, apart from wind, the solar part of RE developments has also been attracting interests from Danish investors, and Obton is one of the companies setting its sight in the country’s energy sector.

“We would want to see more of these kinds of Danish companies as well as there’s several investment funds that operate out of Denmark – CIP (Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners), Copenhagen Energy and then on the solar side, there’s Obton,” he said.

Obton is an investment company that already established its stronghold in the global solar photovoltaic (PV) market for more than a decade – and it has exposure on development, financing, turnkey as well as market management of solar farm projects.

Part of the Danish firm’s strategy is exploring RE markets that have been auctioning their solar capacity when offered to prospective investors.

In the recently announced green energy auction (GEA) to be administered by the Department of Energy (DOE) by June this year, the solar capacities for tendering are spread through the genre of ground-mounted solar; solar rooftop solar and floating solar for aggregate capacity of 7,620 megawatts – and these are targeted for deliveries from 2024 to 2026.

Lim narrated that the Danish firms’ excitement on renewable energy investments in the Philippines had grown following last year’s announcement of the Department of Energy (DOE) on the relaxation of foreign ownership restriction on RE projects, primarily for wind and solar farm installations.

As things stand today, he opined that Danish energy investments in the Philippines will likely “grow dramatically higher in the next 3-4 years because of the signals given by the Department of Energy – in terms of opening up RE to full foreign ownership - relaxing the ownership restrictions because the capacity of the domestic market to raise capital is not there yet.”

The envoy emphasized that “investments from these companies from Denmark would bring in pretty much the current cutting-edge technology in terms of renewable energy, so for us, that’s a welcome development.”

He added that the flow of capital from foreign investors will be highly beneficial for the country – not just on addressing its growing energy needs; but also on reinforcing its own process of developing financial liquidity through the implementation of these key energy projects.

On the sphere of wind farm installation, two Danish investors have already set their foot in the country for their targeted billion-dollars worth of investments in the emerging offshore wind industry of the Philippines.