March 31 2026 | Tenders | Industry news and trends | Procure | Energy & Industrials | APAC
Only 24% of APAC renewable energy procurement teams describe their processes as very efficient. For a region that leads the world in renewable energy capacity growth, that gap is not a footnote. It is a structural problem with direct consequences for project delivery, investor confidence, and grid connection timelines.
Ansarada's 2026 Renewable Energy Infrastructure Outlook Report , developed in partnership with Infralogic, examines why the gap exists and what project developers, procurement teams, and government agencies must do to close it.
Challenges in efficiency
The efficiency challenge in APAC reflects the complexity of operating across highly diverse regulatory regimes, fragmented grid infrastructure, and institutional environments where projects often reach the market before critical coordination issues are fully resolved.
Infrastructure procurement processes in the region frequently see projects advanced to tender before grid connection arrangements are finalised, transmission pathways are clarified, or firming infrastructure requirements are properly scoped. This creates execution risk that deters the broad field of international bidders, often resulting in processes dominated by smaller cohorts of local developers or state-owned enterprises with the institutional familiarity to navigate regulatory sequencing challenges.
The impact on competitive intensity is direct. Only 40% of APAC respondents report ‘high’ or ‘very high’ bidding competition – significantly below the 68% in the Americas and 52% in EMEA. This reduced competition does not benefit projects: it signals a market where an uncertainty premium is being priced into bids, ultimately increasing project costs and reducing execution certainty.
The documentation burden
For APAC project teams, documentation management has emerged as the single greatest operational pain point, cited by 54% of regional respondents as requiring improvement. In markets such as Australia and New Zealand, this burden stems from the vast land areas involved in renewable projects and the complex permission requirements that span multiple jurisdictional levels.
The challenge is compounded by fragmented approaches to document management. When procurement documentation is dispersed across SharePoint folders, project management tools, and individual email inboxes, teams struggle to maintain version control and provide the coherent audit trail required for high-value infrastructure tenders.
Industry observers note in the report that state governments – particularly those leading multi-stakeholder Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) programmes – have begun to address this by front-loading project preparation, using digital platforms in the pre-market phase to centralise approvals, geotechnical data, and early market engagement before formal tenders are launched.
Transparency: a regional disconnect
Only 16% of APAC respondents consider transparency and auditability essential to procurement. In EMEA, that figure is 42%. That gap does not just reflect different regulatory cultures. It creates a direct financing barrier for projects seeking international institutional capital, where transparency requirements are non-negotiable.
This regional difference reflects both cultural and institutional factors. In many APAC markets, procurement traditions emphasise relationship-based engagement and bilateral negotiation over the formalised, multi-stage competitive processes common in Europe. Whilst this approach can enable flexibility in certain contexts, it creates challenges when projects require international institutional financing, where strict transparency and auditability requirements are non-negotiable.
The data reveals a deeper problem.. Whilst 95% of respondents believe their processes are transparent to internal stakeholders, 43% globally admit their procurement lacks clarity for external parties. Government agencies report the lowest confidence in process efficiency at 29% – often struggling to provide external visibility whilst managing complex internal record-keeping requirements.
Why progress monitoring has become APAC's most urgent procurement priority
In response to these coordination challenges, 52% of APAC respondents identify ongoing progress monitoring and reporting as a key driver of procurement success – the highest regional rate globally. This emphasis reflects the practical demands of managing projects across multiple regulatory authorities, transmission operators, and permitting bodies, where execution visibility is essential to maintaining project momentum.
A developer in Australia, for example, may need to secure approvals from national regulators, state transmission operators, multiple local permitting bodies, and in some cases coordinate with cross-border grid initiatives. Without rigorous progress tracking and centralised reporting, these complex stakeholder landscapes quickly become unmanageable.
The path forward
APAC's renewable energy ambitions are real. So is the execution gap. A market that leads the world in capacity targets but ranks last in procurement efficiency is not positioned to deliver on either.
Closing that gap requires more than better tools. It requires institutional commitment to completing technical due diligence before market engagement, investing in unified procurement platforms, and establishing the progress monitoring capabilities that complex, multi-stakeholder projects demand.
The regions that have done this work, EMEA and the Americas, have deeper bidder pools, stronger competitive tension, and faster paths to financial close. APAC has the growth. The question is whether it builds the infrastructure to deliver it.
