Ayala’s energy listed firm ACEN Corporation and its Vietnamese firm-partner BIM Group secured $107-million project financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and other lenders for the 88-megawatt Ninh Thuan wind farm venture in South Central Vietnam.

This greenfield installation, according to the Ayala company, is an addition to its operating wind projects in the Vietnamese energy market, which has an aggregate capacity of 420MW.

The project financing is arranged and syndicated by ADB as mandated lead arranger and bookrunner with the lending group comprised of ADB; Japan International Cooperation Agency; Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Limited; Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation; ING Bank and Cathay United Bank.

It was similarly specified that ADB will be granting the wind project additional $5 million grant from the Goldman Sachs and Bloomberg Philanthropies-backed Climate Innovation and Development Fund, that in turn will be utilized for initiatives to safeguard environmental and social risks.

Patrice Clausse, chief executive officer of ACEN International, highlighted “This major boost on our wind farm’s financing from Asia and the Pacific’s climate bank and ACEN’s long-standing financing partner, ADB; and our other parallel lenders will help catalyze renewable energy build-up capacity by 2030.”

ACEN, in particular, is revving up its RE portfolio growth to 20GW by year 2030, a gigantic leap from its initial target of 5,000MW by 2025.

Clausse added that the funding cornered from ADB, “sends an important message to the market to scale up climate-resilient investments with sufficient speed to help deliver our respective net zero goals.”

BIM Group Vice Chairman and CEO Doan Quoc Huy likewise conveyed, “We have worked very hard with the ADB and other lenders to meet international standards, especially in regard to environmental, social, and governance,” adding that “the success of this transaction supports Vietnam’s transition to a low carbon economy.”

The Ninh Thuan wind farm installation of the ACEN-BIM Group tandem has been in commercial operations since September 2021 with expected electricity generation of 339 gigawatt-hours annually.

Given that this is a renewable energy (RE) resource, the Ayala firm so far calculated that the facility will potentially yield carbon emissions reduction equivalent to 215,000 tons.

Jackie B. Surtani, director of ADB’s Private Sector Operations Department- Infrastructure Finance Division for East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific; emphasized that “energy demand in Vietnam has grown rapidly even during the pandemic, and it is crucial that this demand be met through clean energy that will drive sustainable economic growth.”

The ADB executive thus noted that the Ninh Thuan project, “is a crucial step toward Vietnam’s resilience and ongoing recovery by further expanding the country’s renewable energy mix and contributing to its net-zero targets.”