By Myrna M. Velasco
Following recent equity acquisition in an Australian renewable energy firm, the joint venture of AC Energy of the Ayala group and Hong Kong-based UPC Renewables, will be stepping up for two new wind farm projects in Vietnam.
The Ayala firm announced that the two wind project installations, sited along the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam, will have aggregate capacity of 60 megawatts.
The wind power facilities are targeted to reach commercial commissioning in the third quarter of 2021, so it could be aptly timed to avail of the 8.5-US cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) feed-in-tariff (FIT) being offered by the Vietnamese government for such RE technology developments.
“The projects will utilize wind turbines from Vestas delivered in different power ratings with site-specific towers for both projects,” the Ayala energy firm said.
As emphasized, AC Energy will have 50-percent voting stake in the two projects and will be carried out by its wholly owned subsidiary AC Energy Vietnam Investments 2 Pte. Ltd.
As sealed off in the project development contracts, Vestas Asia Pacific will provide an active output management service agreement stretching up to 20 years.
Clive Turton, president of Vestas Asia Pacific, said the Vietnam project will feature the tallest towers and will “showcase Vestas’ ability to optimize the value proposition for our client and develop site-specific solutions for all wind sites.”
Patrice Clausse, chief operating officer of AC Energy International, asserted that the deployment of the Vestas wind turbines in the Vietnam projects would be a “game-changer that will enhance the competitiveness of wind energy.”
The AC Energy-UPC Renewables tandem for wind farm developments in Vietnam is a continuation of their investment journeys that started in the Philippines – via the 81MW wind farm project in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte which was also incentivized with FIT previously dangled by the Philippine government. And that was followed by another joint venture wind project of 75MW in Indonesia.
Brian Caffyn, chairman and chief executive officer of UPC Renewables, noted that via this reinforced partnership with the Ayala company, “we look forward to building these innovative projects in Vietnam as our first projects in the country.”
He added “the synergies between UPC Renewables and AC Energy continue to allow us to advance innovative and challenging renewable energy projects in the Asia Pacific region and we look forward to working with AC Energy again to advance wind energy in Vietnam.”
Clausse, for his part, has highlighted that their joint venture “strongly pushed for the adoption of new technologies and best practices to grow our assets in renewables.”