To build the US$420 million station in Tay Ninh Province, Thai conglomerate B.Grimm is partnering with Vietnamese construction company Xuan Cau.
The 420-megawatt solar power is expected to begin operations next June, according to Nikkei Asian Review. The station will consist of two plants — Dau Tieng 1 and Dau Tieng 2 — with outputs of 150MW and 200MW, respectively, clarifies PV Magazine. A third plant, Dau Tieng 3, is also planned for implementation sometime between 2021 and 2025.
B.Grimm is a 140-year-old conglomerate that has diversified from pharmaceuticals into energy, building and industrial systems, healthcare, lifestyle, transport and real estate sectors. It has ambitious goals for its overseas power plants, hoping that by 2022 they will account for 30% of overall revenue, up from 6% currently. The electricity produced at the Tay Ninh station will be sold to local power utility Electricity Vietnam (EVN) over a period of 20 years.
Funding for the project will come from local and international institutions. In February, B.Grimm received a US$235 million loan from The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to develop renewable energy projects in Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and Vietnam. They are also involved in a large joint wind farm venture with South Korea.
The plan comes amidst a wave of new solar stations in Vietnam. Singapore-based Sunseap Group began construction on a US$150 million solar farm in Ninh Thuan Province, where a Vietnamese group is also building one at the cost of US$52 million. Plants are also being built in Binh Thuan Province and Quang Tri Province.
Vietnam hopes solar power will play a much larger role in meeting the nation’s energy needs in the future. Government officials recently shared aims to have household solar energy use hit 26% by 2030 and account for 20% of the nation’s total energy production by 2050.
[Photo via Eco Business]
