Ayala-led AC Energy Corporation (ACEN) and its Singaporean partner The Blue Circle have completed another power project in Vietnam via their 40 megawatt (MW) Mui Ne wind farm venture in Binh Thuan province.
The facility is equipped with at least eight turbines with a unit capacity of five megawatts each and it is the largest rotor diameter at 158 meters for onshore wind installations and also the first to use blades in two pieces that were assembled on site.
Olivier Duguet, chief executive officer of The Blue Circle, said the newly commissioned wind farm venture is a second phase development at their Mui Ne site.
He qualified that this year “has been undeniably a record year for the expansion of wind power in Vietnam and we are proud to have contributed with this project.”
ACEN further noted that “construction (of the wind farm project) was completed after only eight months with over 450 construction staff involved in the difficult context of COVID-19 throughout the construction process.”
The Mui Ne facility will be availing of the $0.085 per kilowatt hour feed-in-tariff (FIT) incentives offered by the Vietnamese government, especially so since the project’s completion was attained prior to the cut-off date of November 2021.
“The project’s estimated cost is around $70 million, which is financed by debt and equity, and has qualified for the wind FIT of 8.5 cents per kWh,” ACEN stressed.
Hervé Grillot, chief operating officer of The Blue Circle, stated “this two-pieces blade technology is a game-changer for onshore sites as it will allow larger capacity machines, lowering our cost of energy and enhancing competitiveness of wind energy.”
As previously cast on blueprint, the Mui Ne wind farm undertaking has a potential for 170-MW expansion; and development decision on that space is the next thing to watch out for with ACEN-The Blue Circle joint venture.
In the case of the Ayala energy firm, this is the second wind farm project it completed in Vietnam this year – and the announcement on the commercial operations of its 252MW Quang Binh wind project was just also done last week.
The operations of the Mui Ne wind farm project will be managed by The Blue Circle, as anchored on an Asset Management Services contract inked by the relevant parties.
Patrice Clausse, head of International Group of ACEN, said the completion of the Mui Ne project will reinforce “the overall progress made in expanding our renewables presence in Vietnam.”
The energy market of Vietnam is among the offshore domains where ACEN has been injecting massive capital spending, and that is in line with its capacity build up that must reach 5,000 MW by 2025.