Aboitiz Power eyes expansion of wind project in Vietnam

By Alena Mae S. Flores – September 12, 2019 at 07:40 pm
from manilastandard.net

Aboitiz Power Corp. plans to expand by another 30 megawatts its newly-acquired 39.4-MW onshore wind power facility in Ninh Thuan Province, Vietnam.

Aboitiz Power chief operating officer Emmanuel Rubio said the potential expansion project could involve another 30 MW. “For this one yes… 30 MW, something like that, at least,” he said.

Aboitiz Power recently signed a share purchase agreement for the acquisition of 100-percent ownership of Mekong Wind Pte. Ltd. from Armstrong Southeast Asia Clean Energy Fund Pte. Ltd for $46 million.

Aboitiz Power’s acquisition through wholly-owned subsidiary AboitizPower International captures all legal and economic interest in Mekong Wind, which holds a direct interest in Dam Nai Wind Power JSC.

The 39.4-MW Dam Nai wind project is one of the first wind power projects in Vietnam to have been successfully brought online with commercial operations starting in late 2017.

“It’s by the sea so there was no restriction. We don’t have to buy land, no land titles to worry about,” Aboitiz Power executive vice president and chief strategy officer Luis Miguel Aboitiz said.

Rubio said that for the expansion to proceed, certain deliverables should be met including the meeting the deadline for the feed-in tariff eligibility.

“Vietnam opens up doors for us, introduces us to the network, to the local politics…We are looking for projects that are eligible for FIT and they are wind and solar projects, some operating and some for development,” Rubio said.