Southeast Asia's Clean Energy Transition

Tender documents seen by Eco-Business show the site could host hydrogen, ammonia, biomass and geothermal plants alongside gas; the energy mix will be set out in three scenarios that EMA will share only with the appointed consultant.

After a 2019 pause and two rounds of limited tenders, Singapore joins China, Germany and Japan in regulating data centre efficiency by law, while making operators' clean energy pledges binding.

As of 2025, solar electricity was already 50 per cent cheaper than gas on average across Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, according to a Zero Carbon Analytics study. The cost gap is expected to widen to 84 per cent by the end of the decade.

Cebu’s recurring grid alerts expose a flaw in Philippine renewable procurement, as low-cost projects on outlying islands cannot always supply the Visayas’ biggest power market, leaving Cebu reliant on costly diesel, says Aurora Energy Research’s Patrick Tan.

Bangkok’s response to the LNG price shock highlights a regional problem in which sustainable finance instruments are proliferating, yet clean energy projects remain harder to fund than fossil fuel projects.

Integrating the solar target into Indonesia’s power plan would coordinate investment in generation, grids and storage, as renewable costs fall and utility-scale solar becomes up to 44 per cent cheaper than coal, according to Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.

Higher tariffs, grid guarantees and scrutiny of water use come alongside wider access to renewable power as Bangkok tries to balance digital investment with energy security.

As Malaysia moves to retire coal power by 2044, the country has an opportunity to turn retiring coal sites into clean energy hubs and accelerate the deployment of solar, storage and other renewable technologies.

A wide investment shortfall and weak archipelagic grids hinder efforts to deliver nonstop carbon-free power, particularly for data centres and other industries that need round-the-clock clean electricity, said nonprofit Global Renewables Alliance.

The United States-led partnership, that aims to position the country as a strategic hub for critical minerals, must embed climate justice, gender equity and community participation from the outset to ensure a just energy transition, warn women advocates.

The temporary suspension of activities leading up to the country’s first offshore wind auction is an extra move to make the market more investable, according to the Global Wind Energy Council and the Wind Energy Developers Association of the Philippines, amid concerns over high capital risks.

A new analysis by climate coalitions finds that 83 per cent of Indonesian executives want the government to step up investment in grid capacity and connectivity, while 89 per cent of Filipino executives say policy is lagging behind business electrification, despite Indonesia’s renewables push and the Philippines’ rapidly expanding clean energy pipeline.