Germany-based project developer and operator of wind and solar farms, wpd, plans to build a 75.6 MW onshore wind farm in the Aklan province, the Philippines. Triconti ECC Renewables Corporation, a German-Swiss-Filipino joint venture based in the Philippines, is involved in the project planning and implementation as a cooperation partner.
According to wpd, the Aklan wind farm will comprise 18 Vestas V136 turbines with a capacity of 4.2 MW each. The hilly site is located on the north-western tip of Panay Island, at an altitude of between 123 m and 362 m above sea level. At the current planning stage, commissioning is scheduled for the end of 2023.
The project is part of a large-scale grid reinforcement and expansion for the islands of Cebu, Negros and Panay, called CNP Backbone Extension, explained wpd. The wind farm will be connected to the grid via a new substation, which is being built by wpd and Triconti for the grid operator NGCP. The project partners are currently in talks to market the electricity generated by the wind farm locally via a power purchase agreement (PPA).
In addition, wpd recently announced its entry to Vietnam with the development of Kon Plong project. This onshore wind farm will be built in collaboration with Levanta Renewables, a Singapore-based developer of renewable energy projects in Southeast Asia.
The Kon Plong project is located in the Kon Tum province, about 780 km southeast of the Vietnamese capital Hanoi. The wind farm is planned to have a total capacity of up to 103.5 MW, and construction work is expected to start as early as 2022.
Wpd revealed that the Kon Plong project has been included in Vietnam’s Power Development Plan 7 and is therefore well positioned to receive central government support for further development steps.
“Our market entry in Vietnam is part of the expansion of our activities in the Asia Pacific region. The Kon Plong project and the good cooperation with Levanta will allow us to further expand our pipeline,” said Hans-Christoph Brumberg, head of business development APAC at wpd. “We will advance global decarbonisation with more projects in Vietnam and the APAC region.”
“Vietnam’s potential for wind energy is a key element in the country’s plan to double its use of renewable energy to meet rapidly growing electricity demand this decade and to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,” added Sudhir Nunes, co-founder and managing director of Levanta Renewables. “With the Kon Plong project, together with wpd and our other partners, we aim to help meet this demand while supporting Vietnam’s energy transition.”
Image: Ralph Olazo/Unsplash
