In the Sunseap Group office, solar panels are hung on the walls like art—after all, these were the foundational building blocks of the company, which began in the 1980s as a manufacturer of solar panels for German firms. Today, Sunseap bills itself as Singapore’s leading integrated clean energy solutions provider, and is looking to make its mark in the region as well.
In August, it secured investment from Shell’s corporate venture arm, with intent for Sunseap and Shell to collaborate on solar projects in the Asia-Pacific. Sunseap began venturing into regional markets four years ago, and director Frank Phuan points to the 10MWp solar farm in Cambodia’s Bavet City (the country’s first-ever solar farm) as an example of how renewable energy could have a transformative effect on the region.
“Bavet experiences power outages quite frequently, especially during drought season, because the area is heavily powered by hydroelectric power. When we set up a solar farm, it could power thousands of homes. People would come up and ask our team when the farm would be completed, and rush us, because they knew it would change their lives,” explains Phuan. A reliable power source means light for classrooms, electricity for businesses, and all the potential boosts in productivity and innovation that these imply. With renewable energy slated to make up nearly two-thirds of the Asia-Pacific’s growth in new power generation capacity over the next 25 years, it is certain that many more lives are going to see a new illumination.
Your father started Sunseap Group to manufacture solar panels. How has the business evolved?
Frank Phuan (FP) In the 1980s, ’90s and 2000s, and even as recently as five years ago, solar energy was always regarded more as an option for the future. In 2010, we transformed the business by moving from selling solar energy systems to running it as a service. This means we sell the energy that our systems produce; we no longer sell the systems. Customers pay for the power they use, which is what they’re used to doing, and this has increased the adoption rate.
We’ve been able to make this transition by focusing on research and development, system integration and data analytics. Anybody can buy and install solar panels. The question is how to optimise yield from these systems, and we’ve found processes to do that. We’ve very strong monitoring and maintenance teams, equipment and software so that we can manage our systems efficiently. Solar generation is just one aspect of the business. To value add, we’ve also come up with parallel businesses such as energy storage and energy‑efficient equipment.
"Every megawatt of power that we install in Singapore is equivalent to planting 30,000 trees. So far, we have installed 160MW in Singapore alone"