Issue 2 : July-August 2009
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Full Advantage revolutionizes the environmental circles with the offering of modernized “Clean and Sustainable” energy solutions



To boost the adoption of clean energy to help preserve the world's environment, Full Advantage, a sustainable energy and environment solutions provider, has utilized its expertise to offer a complete solution to help businesses and organizations at all parts to move towards a new “clean” energy era.


Set up in 2005, the company, located at Thailand Science Park , is a spin-off from EC-Asean CoGEN Programme, the European Union's clean energy and environmental preservation initiative, which was developed to accelerate the implementation of proven clean and efficient cogeneration technologies. Operated during 1990 to 2004, the program was targeted at transferring technology and know-how from European technological companies to Asean region.

“Since the program was a donor-funded initiative by EU, its sustainability has been planned. So, after the program ended in 2004, there was an idea to spin off a company to continue promoting the adoption of clean and efficient energy by providing consultancy service and project development activities in the sector,” said Alan Dale Gonzales, the executive director of Full Advantage.


Gonzales is the former chief business advisor of CoGEN programme. He, together with a group of former CoGEN's directors, have gathered all their experiences and core competency in the field of sustainable energy to start a new business by establishing Full Advantage to offer end-to-end commercialized services and assist institutional and private sector to develop a wide range of energy and environmental projects and activities.

During its four-year operation, the company focuses on three main business activities including advisory and consulting; business and project development; and Climate Change activities. Key areas of services involve the development of renewable energy and rural electrification, cogeneration and decentralized energy systems, biomass, biogas and bio-fuels.


The company provides the services starting from technical and resource assessment, consultancy services, project development, market and business plan development until fund mobilization and carbon financing.

Even based in Bangkok , Full Advantage is now offering the services throughout the South East Asia region. Apart from Thailand , the company has conducted business activities in the Philippines , Vietnam , Cambodia , Laos , Malaysia and Indonesia . Currently, it has a subsidiary in Philippines .


“ Thailand is our key base station to do and expand our business in this region. We also have local partners in each country to help us penetrate the market.”

Gonzales said.

Since expertise is a major concern for the company's business, Full Advantage uses a strategy to create network of collaboration with a wide range of partners including technology partners, business partners as well as financial partners. Through this network, the company can pool resources and combine their strengths to provide a complete service and a total solution, which suits each individual's needs.

Also located at Thailand Science Park , the company has advantages from staying very close to technology centers. This, Gonzales said, enabled the company to create linkages and easily get access to potential research and development works to develop innovative projects for its clients.

So far, the company has partnered with the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotec) in the development of biogas production technology. Technology developed from Thailand is now a key part in the company's project to build up biogas facilities in Vietnam .

In Thailand alone, around 20 projects have been done for local clients. Its renowned reference site is the the assistance in implementation of high-pressure cogeneration systems for a leading Thai sugar manufacturer, Mitr Phol Sugar Group. The projects, worth at US$50-60 million each, were to build up 53-megawatt and 65-megawatt high-pressure cogeneration systems at two Mitr Phol's sites in Supanburi and Chaiyaphum provinces.

Gonzales said the project was the first of its kind in sugar industry to use new technology of cogeneration system to produce electrical power.

Moreover, to demonstrate business potential in sustainable energy arena, the company has put the whole year efforts, initiating a new project to show off investment opportunities in clean energy development. The project, called SPRING-1, is to build up the first integrated biogas-to-energy and biocompost facilities in Thailand .

Gonzales said SPRING-1 was aimed at showing off a real concept to turn wastes coming from a molasses-based bio-ethanol plant and sugar mill into electrical energy and then sell it to the Provincial Electricity Authority (PEA).

The development involves the implementation of two production facilities: Biomethanation facility, a process to bring wastewater from ethanol plant to produce biogas and generate electricity with a total capacity of 10 megawatts; and Composting facility, a process to utilize filter cake, the by-product from sugar mill, to produce 90,000 tons of organic fertilizer a year.

The company estimated that the project would help the facilities avoid and reduce methane emission while mitigate green house gas emission of more than 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually.

With its beneficial aspects, SPRING-1 won the first prize in the Business Plan Competition for South-East Asia held in Singapore in March this year and was awarded the 2009 Climate Technology Initiative (CTI) Clean Energy Financing Award. The project was deemed to be one of the most promising clean energy investment opportunities in the Asean region.

In partnership with Silverdale Consortium as a financial partner, the company is now in the process of fund raising and is also looking for equity partners and providers to join in SPRING-1 project. Gonzales said the investment of this project would be at around US$35 million and the company expected to start the project by the end of this year. It also planned to spend one more year to complete the whole facilities establishment.

The development of various kinds of sustainable and clean energy projects at Full Advantage is now taking off. For Gonzales, he speculated more increasing demands to use clean energy in the society and in the industry and he had a plan to build up his Thai-based company to grow and be strong in this field.

“We hope that Full Advantage, in the next three to five years, will become a prominent and foremost sustainable energy solutions provider and will eventually be an established regional company, which has business presence in many countries,” added Gonzales.


For more information please visit www.full-advantage.com.