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UOB launches energy-efficiency financing in Indonesia
United Overseas Bank has expanded to Indonesia with a program for the financing of energy efficiency in buildings.
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UOB managing director Jasper Wong (left) presents the Singapore-based bank's U-Energy program on June 23. (YouTube/Bisniscom/-)
U
nited Overseas Bank (UOB) has expanded to Indonesia with a program for the financing of energy efficiency in buildings. At an event held on Thursday to announce the start of its U-Energy initiative in Indonesia, UOB managing director and head of construction and infrastructure-sector-solutions group of UOB Singapore, Jasper Wong, explained that any institution implementing energy efficiency principles could save up to 50 percent on energy.
“Effectively, energy efficiency is doing the same thing with less energy, or with less cost. [...] If you have to pay more to do energy efficiency, that’s not energy efficiency,” said Wong.
He added that the first step to energy efficiency was benchmarking, which meant an entity had to conduct an audit to figure out where it stood and what it could improve.
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However, carrying this out is not as simple as it sounds, according to Elrika Hamdi, energy economist of the Institute of Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), because both the audit itself and the implementation of energy efficiency measures require a lot of capital.
“When someone appears to be completely healthy, they wouldn’t want to get examined by a doctor [and pay for it], would they?” said Elrika about the hurdle behind implementing energy efficiency.
“Appears” is the keyword to that analogy, because someone appearing to be healthy may actually need medical care. Likewise, a corporation may not realize its need for greater energy efficiency.
