AC ENERGY Corp. (ACEN) plans to switch on its seventh renewable energy project in Vietnam the first quarter of this year, after it launched three jointly developed wind farms in the regional neighbor in 2021.

In a statement sent late on Wednesday, the listed energy platform of the Ayala group said that it is expecting the 60-megawatt (MW) Lac Hoa & Hoa Dong Wind in Soc Trang to be operating early this year.

“The wind project is a collaboration with partner UPC Renewables Co. Ltd. Vietnam and will feature the tallest wind turbines in the country to date at a record hub height of 162 meters,” the company said.

The company recently announced that it had powered on three new wind farms to add 380-MW power capacity to the Vietnam grid.

ACEN President and Chief Executive Eric T. Francia said: “Powering three energy plants in 2021 was a significant accomplishment that we could not have achieved without the collaboration with our partners and strong support from the government of Vietnam.”

The 88-MW Ninh Thuan wind farm in South Central Vietnam, the second partnership project of ACEN and the Hanoi-based BIM Group, began operating in October last year.

It is expected to produce 327 gigawatt-hours (GWh) in a year, enough to power around 136,000 homes with renewable energy and help avoid 298,551 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

In November, the 252-MW Quang Binh wind farm, a joint project of the company with AMI AC Renewables in the North Central Vietnam, was switched on. It is one of the largest wind farms in the country that can produce 648 GWH or renewable energy per hour annually,

In the same month, ACEN and The Blue Circle’s second phase 40-MW Mui Ne in Binh Thuan Province in South Vietnam was also turned on.

ACEN said that through its transformational partnerships, it has rapidly expanded its renewables footprint in Vietnam.

Vietnam is the ACEN’s largest market outside of the Philippines. The company has six renewable energy projects in the foreign country, three of which are solar plants that are all commercially operating since 2019.

ACEN aspires to be the biggest listed energy platform in Southeast Asia as it targets to put up 5,000 MW of renewable energy capacity by 2025.

Its shares on Thursday rose 2.42% or 23 centavos to close at P9.73 apiece. — Marielle C. Lucenio

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