Ayala eyeing additional $300-M outlay for Vietnam solar project

Tprimarily solar and wind, according to Francia are also underpinned by feed-intariff (FIT) incentives – similar to what the Philippines had done on its first and second wave of project developments on such technologies. The only difference, he explained, is that in Vietnam “they don’t have a quota, unlike in the Philippines.”

He specified though that proposals for RE installations must go along with the master plan of the Vietnamese government on its energy sector development.

“They (Vietnam) don’t have limits he energy investment arm of the Ayala group is moving headway on planned utilityscale solar capacity expansion in Vietnam that will call for additional capital outlay of US$300 million.

The company’s jumpstart investment in that offshore market had been at 30MW, but according to AC Energy President and Chief Executive Eric T. Francia, they will already advance next on the 300MW capacity expansion that had already been set on blueprint in that country.

In his calculation, every megawatt of installation on the proposed solar farm will entail investment of roughly US$1.0 million, hence, the entire 300MW chunk will sum up to US$300 million – or it could also be less depending on the economies of scale they could already generate on existing project.

“In Vietnam, we’re hopeful that we will break ground on much more than 30MW this year… it should be around this first half,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Asia CEO Forum on Energy at the Marriott Hotel in Pasay City.

He qualified that the first 30MW solar farm venture that the company announced last month will be on top of the planned bigger scale installation of 300MW.

The Ayala group’s initial solar investment foray in Vietnam is in Ninh Thuan province and it is a partnership with Vietnamese firm BIM Group.

Renewable energy (RE) developments in Vietnam, but obviously you have to get into their master plan before you can even develop a project. Actually, we don’t know what their internal limit is,” Francia asserted.

Nevertheless, he emphasized that the race is almost as tough as what the Philippines had gone through, with a lot of investors now cornering the equivalent of a service contract being offered in that market.

The RE space is the targeted brisk area of growth for the Ayala group, with its goal on thermal plant developments already inching close to realization.