Excellence in Renewable Energy Markets

Renewable energy technologies are capturing an increasingly larger share of the world's power and energy needs. The development and integration of renewable energy products and systems that promote a sustainable energy infrastructure are increasingly important to both governments and consumers.

The 2012 Commodity Business Award for Excellence in Renewable Energy Markets is awarded to Sindicatum Sustainable Resources (SSR) – a specialised sustainable resources company headquartered in Singapore and a developer, owner and operator of clean energy projects worldwide and a producer of sustainable products from natural resources and waste. With a team of over 350 engineers, technicians, climate change specialists and other professionals and administration personnel, Sindicatum brings together strengths in project development, finance and technology.

Sindicatum partners with leading providers in order to deliver the optimum solution for each project. Sindicatum’s projects fall into four keys sectors: agricultural solutions, municipal waste to energy, coal mine methane and low carbon energy. These include the development and operation of 33 fully financed projects worldwide.

Of particular note has been SSR's focus in India. According to World Bank reports India suffers from a persistent power deficit and 640GW will be required over the next 20 years. Sindicatum Sustainable Resources has focused on the renewable power capacity of India's sugar sector (the second largest producer in the world) which could contribute to the solution of this problem. As such, SSR is in the process of developing a >500MW biomass electricity generation business in JV with sugar mills. With SSR's funding and technical expertise they are modernizing and expanding the mill's on-site power capacity. The resultant more efficient combustion of bagasse (sugarcane waste) abates GHGs and allows for year-round clean energy export. Recently SSR also signed its second JV bringing total MWs under development to 130 with two MOUs progressing which will bring the total to 239 MW. The bagasse provided by the sugar mill's operations also greatly reduces the generation risk for the power plant.

SindicatumGroup CEO, Assaad W. Razzouk said: "We are delighted to have won this prestigious award, which showcases the renewable energy projects developed by Sindicatum under the Clean Development Mechanism(CDM) as one of the most tangible and successful examples of industry’s response to climate change."

Razzouk continued: "We hope that our continuing accomplishments raise awareness about the current plight of the CDM, the world’s foremost project-based environmental market mechanism. The CDM has been very successful in delivering least cost abatement, and channeling over 215 billions of dollars of support to clean energy projects in the developing world. Inexplicably, there is a real chance Governments will allow the CDM to fail (as evidenced by the current price of carbon). This will cause the world to lose a valuable, successful and large-scale environmental market mechanism. In the absence of a strong carbon price signal, the CDM and other initiatives (such as policy-based energy efficiency interventions and renewable energy targets) won’t reduce emissions sufficiently to have any chance of keeping global warming below 2⁰C. International investors want to play their full role in combating climate change, the world’s foremost existential issue, but cannot unless policy makers and politicians revive the CDM by creating additional demand for its currency".

The award was presented to Ambassador Quentin Quayle, a leading British diplomatic expert on South East Asia and Advisor to Sindicatum, by celebrated British comedian Alun Cochrane.