30 MW Vietnam Project Expansion To 280 MW

• A 30 MW solar power project under construction in Vietnam's Ninh Thuan province will be expanded to 280 MW
• BIM Group and AC Energy are developing the project with Bouygues Energies & Services and Juwi as EPC contractors
• Credit agreement with an international bank that hasn't been named, has been secured for a total of over $200 million
• It may be further expanded to well over 300 MW capacity in the future

Vietnam's BIM Group and AC Energy of Ayala from Philippines will be scaling up a 30 MW solar power project in the country to massive 280 MW. The joint venture between the two companies plans to further expand the capacity to over 300 MW.

The project is coming up in Ninh Thuan province on over 35 hectares of land. On completion, they expect it to be the 'largest' solar farm in Southeast Asia that will generate an estimated 545 million kWh of clean energy annually. It is expected to assume commercial operations in June 2019.

EPC contractors for the 280 MW solar farm are Bouygues Energies & Services and Juwi from Germany. BIM will hold the majority and controlling interest in the farm. Credit agreement with an unnamed international bank has already been secured for a loan of more than $200 million.

In January 2018, construction on the project orginally started with Conergy Asia & ME Pte. Ltd. as the contractor. The 30 MW capacity was expected to be built with a total investment of VND 800 billion ($35.2 million).

There is already another project lager 200 MW under construction in Vietnam. In July 2018, Vietnam's Trung Nam Group broke ground on a 204 MW solar power project at its wind farm, which solar tracker maker Arctech Solar says will be a 258 MW sized project (see Construction Start Of 204 MW Vietnam PV Project).