Waiting to transition to renewables is a losing game for companies because energy price shocks are becoming permanent, governments cannot subsidise fossil fuels forever, and late movers will pay structurally higher power costs than competitors that secure long-term renewable contracts today.
We’re excited to share that our CEO, Gavin Adda, has written a new op-ed in The Business Times titled “Waiting to transition to renewables is a losing game for companies.” You can read the full piece here on The Business Times website: Waiting to transition to renewables is a losing game for companies. In it, Gavin explains why Asian businesses, especially in open and import-dependent economies like Singapore, are now operating in an era of near-permanent energy shocks.
The article opens with the recent Iran war and how it hit Asia harder than other regions because the continent buys roughly 60 per cent of its oil from the Middle East. As conflict escalated, Asian liquefied natural gas (LNG) prices jumped 97 per cent in a single week, while US prices rose only 11 per cent thanks to its domestic gas production. This divergence, backed by Asian Development Bank and LSEG data, illustrates how exposed Asian corporates are to external shocks in fossil fuel markets.
Gavin argues that while governments can tap reserves, coal and even restart nuclear plants in a crunch, they cannot indefinitely shield companies from volatility with subsidies when fiscal debt is climbing worldwide. The result: companies increasingly stand alone when it comes to securing supply, managing margins and planning their energy strategy. In this environment, renewables stop being an ESG side project and become a core competitiveness lever.
The piece lays out a clear shift inside the most forward-looking corporates: the conversation is moving from “How do we hedge energy prices?” to “How do we remove exposure to fossil fuel volatility altogether?” That mindset change – treating power as a strategic position to secure, not just a monthly bill to endure – underpins the case for moving early on long-term renewable power-purchase agreements (PPAs), on-site solar and storage.
In the op-ed, Gavin highlights that renewable energy is now one of the most stable and cost-effective power sources available, especially in Asia, where solar module prices fell around 90 per cent between 2015 and 2024. Installed on-site, solar becomes the most local form of power a business can access, reducing dependence on imported fossil fuels and congested grids.
The article emphasises how long-term PPAs change the economic equation. Because solar and wind have no fuel costs, developers can offer fixed or more predictable prices over 15 to 20 years. This allows corporates to lock in a meaningful share of their electricity needs at a stable rate, instead of watching costs spike whenever oil, gas or coal markets move. For energy-intensive manufacturers, that cost visibility can be the difference between maintaining margins and being forced into sudden price hikes.
Gavin points to the behaviour of technology firms and data centres across Asia as an early signal of where the market is heading. In Singapore, data centres already consume nearly 20 per cent of national power according to the 2026 Global Data Center Report by the International Data Center Authority. Because electricity is their single biggest cost line, these companies treat power procurement as a board-level strategic issue, not a facility expense.
Leading tech players, including Google and Microsoft, are already major buyers of renewable and carbon-free electricity through long-dated PPAs and hourly matching of their load with clean generation. Both have joined the UN-backed 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Compact, alongside key renewable suppliers. Their logic is straightforward: in a volatile energy world, securing cheap, clean and predictable power today creates pricing power tomorrow.
The op-ed argues that every energy-intensive company in Asia is gradually starting to look more like a data centre. Whether you run factories, logistics hubs or cold storage, power is becoming central to your cost structure. The companies that move first to secure renewables will have a fundamental advantage – they will have priced in the future energy world that everyone else will soon face.
Gavin’s core message is that timing now matters more than ever in renewable procurement. Long-term, fixed-price renewable contracts with solid grid connections are finite. As more buyers enter the market, the best projects are claimed first, and late adopters face higher prices and fewer options. Based on Peak Energy’s proprietary modelling of constrained Asian power markets, late movers could pay 30 to 40 per cent more than companies that secure capacity early.
The article gives concrete examples of how early movers are already lowering their costs. Since the beginning of the Iran war, a long-term solar PPA could cut a corporation’s electricity bill by around 50 per cent versus grid tariffs in some countries. Samsung’s manufacturing division in Vietnam, for example, has locked in savings of roughly 20 to 25 per cent against the national grid. Toyota Group’s supplier JTEKT in Japan has achieved about a 40 per cent reduction compared with grid tariffs even before the war – a gap that has widened as fossil-based power has become more expensive.
The op-ed also addresses a common counter-argument: that energy shocks may not speed up the transition because governments fall back on coal, nuclear or other short-term fixes. Gavin notes that this view misses the “game theory” at play. One company locks in renewables early and enjoys lower, more stable costs regardless of what oil does. Another waits, enters a tighter market later and must fight for fewer projects at higher prices.
In this game, waiting is not neutral – it is a high-stakes bet that the cost curve and policy landscape will freeze, which history suggests is unlikely. For trade-dependent economies like Singapore that import almost all their energy, that bet becomes even riskier. Corporate planning, investment decisions and employment all depend on stable inputs, and energy is now the least stable of them.
If you are responsible for energy, sustainability, finance or strategy in an Asian business, Gavin’s piece is a concise guide to why moving first on renewables can be a source of competitive advantage, not just compliance. We encourage you to read, bookmark and share the full op-ed on The Business Times: Waiting to transition to renewables is a losing game for companies. It sets out why inaction may now be costlier than transition – and why the companies that treat power as a position to take, not a bill to pay, will spend the next decade negotiating from strength.