Second solar farm kicked off in Ninh Thuan

The second solar farm in Ninh Thuan kicked off from early this year

According to the plan, Gelex’s solar plant will have a total investment capital of VND1.3 trillion ($56.95 million) and cover an area of 70 hectares in Thuan Nam district. It is one of the 18 projects, the investment planning of which the Ninh Thuan People’s Committee approved in November 2017.

The project’s construction is expected to be finished in May 2019 and it will start to generate commercial power one month later, with the capacity of 82 million kWh per year.

Earlier on March 30, Gelex and Power Solution Technologies Public Company Limited (PSTC) from Thailand signed a co-operation agreement to develop the project. Accordingly, PSTC will contribute a part of the project capital and will be in charge of the technical side of the project.

This is the second solar farm that started construction in Ninh Thuan this year.

Previously, on January 23, leading Vietnamese private group BIM and Philippines-based AC Energy have started developing BIM 1 solar power plant in Phuoc Minh commune in the central province of Ninh Thuan.

According to the plan, the solar farm project, which has a total capital of 30MWp, will cover an area of 35 hectares with the total investment capital of VND800 billion ($35.2 million). By installing 90,000 solar panels and other modern equipment, the plant is expected to generate 50 million kWh per annum once it comes into operation.

The solar farm will be connected to the national grid in the third quarter of this year, which is the premise for accelerating other large-scale solar projects with a total capacity of 300MW to generate electricity in the first quarter of 2019.

Ninh Thuan is considered an ideal investment destination for foreign investors to invest in the solar power sector, which is demonstrated in the seriousness of foreign investors arriving to the province to find investment opportunities.

It holds good solar energy potential with the average sunshine hours of 2,600-2,800 per year.

The province is finalising a master plan for solar energy from 2016 to 2020 with vision to 2030, which aims to generate some 2,000MW of electricity by 2020.

Most recently, on May 31, the Ninh Thuan People’s Committee granted investment licences to nine solar power projects worth over VND12 trillion ($527.4 million).

The construction of the projects will commence in the second and third quarter of 2018 and be completed at the end of 2019 with a capacity of nearly 500MW.