The 88-megawatt Ninh Thuan joint venture wind project of AC Energy Corporation of the Ayala Group and Vietnamese partner BIM Group has reached commercial operations, the Filipino energy firm has announced.

With that wind farm venture, AC Energy specified that its renewable energy capacity in Vietnam now hovers at 1,000MW – comprising of projects that are now in operation as well as those that are still under construction.

The completed wind facility is sited in South Central Vietnam and that commanded total investment of US$155 million coughed up by project sponsor-firms AC Energy and the BIM Group.

According to AC Energy, the wind plant is equipped with 22 Cypress turbines that were supplied by American industrial manufacturing giant GE.

The Ayala firm indicated that the wind facility “is expected to produce 327 gigawatt-hours (GWh) per year once fully operational” and that will be enough to power at least 50,000 homes annually.

As emphasized by Patrice Clausse, chief operating officer of AC Energy International, the Ninh Thuan wind farm reached its commercial operations milestone “ahead of the feed-in-tariff deadline, notwithstanding the many challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The AC Energy executive added “as we continue to carve a niche for ourselves by developing some of the most notable renewable energy plants in Vietnam to date, we will continue to accelerate our investments in renewables in the country and aid in its goal to increase the share of renewables in their energy mix.”

Huy Quoc Doan, deputy chairman of the BIM Group, highlighted that “the 88MW Ninh Thuan wind farm has proven our experience, determination and execution capability during the uncertainty of the pandemic.”

For Eric T. Francia, president and CEO of AC Energy, he qualified that as their company takes the forefront of energy transition, “we identified Vietnam as one of (our) priority markets.”

He expounded that the Vietnamese government has “strong commitment to renewable energy,” and their market has also provided “an enabling environment for industry players such as ourselves to participate in the country’s thriving power sector.”

The two firms first partnered on solar farm developments that already reached aggregate capacity of 405 megawatts and now yielding roughly 1.0 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity generation.

From the solar facilities to the wind farm venture in Ninh Thuan, the BIM group executive noted that the projects “transformed the region into Vietnam’s largest salt and renewable energy economic zone, while contributing to the country’s sustainable economic development, environmental protection and clean energy production for the future.”