Vietnam battery storage project secures new US grant

Viet · May 12, 2023

American conglomerate Honeywell and AMI AC Renewables will receive another US$3 million grant from the US government to pursue a battery energy storage system (BESS) project in Vietnam.

AMI AC Renewables is a joint venture (JV) between Vietnam’s AMI Renewables and AC Energy, a member of Ayala Corporation, one of the Philippines’ biggest conglomerates.

The US Consulate General in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City is set to award the new grant for the project on May 9. The consulate awarded the JV the first grant of US$2.96 million for the project in October 2021.

The BESS will be integrated into a 50-megawatt solar farm the JV owns in Khanh Hoa province, about 400 kilometres north of Ho Chi Minh City. Khanh Hoa borders Ninh Thuan province, a renewable energy hub.

The two grants resulted from the US-Vietnam Energy Security Dialogue, an initiative aimed at helping energy-thirsty Vietnam to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The US Trade and Development Agency funded a study to examine the feasibility of deploying advanced energy storage technologies in Vietnam.

The project will use cutting-edge US technology and equipment to demonstrate how advanced energy storage can reduce power losses and integrate greater renewable energy into the power system, according to the US consulate.

AMI AC Renewables operates 80MW solar plants in Khanh Hoa and Dak Lak provinces, and is constructing a 252MW wind farm in Quang Binh province on the central coast.

Late last year the Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a US$107 million financing deal with BIM Wind Power JSC to support the operation of an 88MW wind farm in Ninh Thuan province. BIM Wind Power is jointly owned by AC Energy and Hanoi-based BIM Group.

AC Energy and BIM have been developing renewable energy projects since 2019. The Ayala subsidiary has around 3,700MW of energy capacity in operation and under construction in Australia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, with a renewable share of 93% among the highest in the region, says ADB.