Singapore-headquartered investment fund Clime Capital will be injecting up to $10 million for the solar rooftop installations in the commercial and industrial (C&I) space as well utility-scale ventures to be undertaken by Upgrade Energy Philippines (UGEP), a joint venture between Aboitiz Power Distributed Renewables Inc. (APX) and the group led by business executive Ruth Yu-Owen.

As announced by Upgrade Energy, Clime Capital’s investment will be channeled through South East Clean Energy Fund II, which is into supporting initiatives toward a low-carbon economy.

“The capital injection is intended to support UGEP in expediting the deployment of solar energy infrastructure in the country, including projects designed for internal consumption by commercial and industrial customers as well as utility-scale solar projects designed to dispatch clean energy to the electrical grid,” the Filipino firm said.

According to Clime Capital CEO Mason Wallick, the capital injection into Upgrade Energy is part of their company’s mission “to fund promising clean energy companies that will contribute toward achieving South East Asia’s net-zero targets.”

Upgrade Energy indicated that it is targeting to go beyond its  50MW target of solar-installed capacities for rooftops by the end of the year.

The company is among the leading players into leasing the rooftops of C&I entities, so these can be utilized for the PV installations that can then be used as energy source of its partner-businesses.

Owen, who is the president and CEO of Upgrade Energy, emphasized that there is “immense renewable energy potential in the Philippines.”

She further noted that “developing infrastructure is an urgent task so we can meet the Department of Energy's ambitious targets of 35% renewable energy by 2030 and 50% by 2040 – and accelerated funding is essential to seizing the current opportunity.”

Upgrade Energy Chief Operations Officer Pieterjan Vanbuggenhout qualified that “creating the infrastructure for the Philippines’ decarbonization journey requires investors that appreciate the country’s renewable energy landscape as well as helping to meet global ESG (environmental social governance) standards.”

On a global lens, the Philippines is still rated to have weak performance when it comes to ESG compliance, but Clime Capital indicated that its business model has been “designed to meet these requirements.”

Clime Capital Chief Investment Officer Joshua Kramer vouched that their strategy is to provide “both growth capital and long-term ESG guidance to support high-potential clean energy companies through a rapid scale-up process.”

Across the chain of operations of most C&I end-users, energy is among the highest recurring costs to keep their machineries, processes as well as offices running; and solar rooftop solution has been presenting an imperative for them not just to pare their carbon emissions but also to save costs on their electricity usage.